In and Out of Time
by Wonder Woman 82
Summary: Emmett Cullen and Bella Swan have been friends their entire lives. What happens when he wonders if there could be more? What happens when Jasper Hale is thrown into the mix? Chaos ensues.
1. Some Things Never Change

EMPOV:

My whole life has been devoted to three things. One, being awesome. Two, playing sports and being good at it. Three, protecting my best friend, Bella Swan.

We'd been friends since before pre-school. Her father and mine always went fishing together. We have always been friends since I can remember. Everybody knew not to mess with Bells or they'd answer to me.

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"Hey, Em!" Bella beamed at me as she closed her front door. I'd been picking her up for school ever since I had gotten my driver's license my junior year.

I hopped out and gave her a huge bear hug. "How's my girl this morning?"

"Good. I just want to get this stupid math test over with." She laughed.

"Yeah. Did you and Cullen go out last night?" I questioned his motives. I've known him since junior high when he and his sister Alice moved from New York. He seemed to emo for my taste.

"Gah. Yes. He's so effing weird." She rolled her eyes. "First, he takes me to this book store and pretty much leaves me by myself. Then, there's this group of guys totally hitting on me at the checkout counter, and then he gets all pissed off, right?" I nodded. "So, anyway, he gets all up in their faces and tells 'em to back off. We then went to dinner and he claimed to read people's minds. I'm telling you Em. Grade A whack job."

I busted out into laughter. "That sounds like him, alright."

"What about you and Rosalie? How goes that?"

I sighed. "Yeah, she broke up with me for some Johnny College. Said she wasn't into high school boys anymore. It doesn't make a difference. I mean, all we did was fight. We got along so much better when we were just friends, you know? I guess we only stayed together because it was expected of us."

She nodded her head. "Well. You still have me." She beamed. How right she was. No matter what, I'd always have my best friend, Bella.

We hopped in the car and I put in my mixed c.d. that Bella made for me. "What the hell is this shit, Bella?" I scoffed. I turned the song to the next one and smiled. "Hell yeah! That's what I'm talking about." Bella laughed.

"..my anaconda don't want none unless you got buns hon.." I sang. Bella and I used to dance to this song all of the time when we were kids.

We finally got to the school where Jasper was sitting on the trunk of his Mustang smoking a cigarette while Alice was playing kissy face with Jessica Stanley. Turns out Alice was a total lesbo in the tenth grade. Really freaked Jasper out, too. He walked in on her and Stanley making out after softball practice one day. Fucked him up for life.

Edward was talking to Lauren Mallory by his Volvo and Rosalie was standing by her red convertible wearing that douche college boy's letter man's jacket. Fuck me.

"Hey Dickward!" I yelled over to Cullen. He gave me the, quit picking on me because I'm so desperately emo look.

"Fuck you, Emmett." He snapped back.

"I don't bat for your team, sorry sweetheart." I laughed.

"Emmett. What's up bro?" Jasper was too cool for fucking words. I wish he and Bella would hook up. He's got that laid back, I don't give a fuck attitude.

"Not a whole lot. Picking up my chick, Bells for school." I ruffled Bella's hair. She scowled at me and I blew her a kiss.

"You should let me give you a ride to school sometime, Bella. My car is definitely cooler than Emmett's." Jasper laughed.

"Yeah right, dude. My jeep is definitely kick ass and state of the art!"

I saw Alice peck Jessica on the lips and do some fuckin' pixie dance over in our direction. "Bella! My love! Did you study for the math test today?"

"Gah. Yes. Even though SOMEBODY kept me out far too long last night with his crazy emo bullshit." She nodded in Emoward's direction.

Rosalie chimed in. "Are you all gonna' stand there and talk about your love lives and not mine?" She smirked. Fucking bitch.

"Nobody wants to hear about Johnny College." I huffed.

"Oh. Poor Emmett. Still hung up that you couldn't do it for me, huh?" She glared.

"Please. The only reason I stayed with your trifling ass is because people expected the football captain to date the head cheerleader. I was only upholding social status."

"Right. So, you're not jealous at all that I'm dating a college quarterback?"

"Not a bit. Matter of fact, I have a date tonight." I smirked at Rosalie. Her face tensed up as if she were nearly in tears. "What's the matter, Rose? You can dish it out, but you can't take it? Go cry to your fucking boyfriend."

Standing like this in a group before school is something we've done since junior high when the Cullen kids moved in followed by the Hale's a couple of months later.

Alice was always the perky one, Edward was always the emo one, Jasper always the cool one, Rosalie always the queen bitch Barbie, and Bella. Well, Bella was just... Bella. She was her own category. Clumsy, smart, witty, sarcastic, and cute to the core. My best friend.

I sighed at the thought of it all. Some things never change. I was almost glad for it.

With five minutes left to spare we walked into the school building and Bella tripped over the stair. Like lightning, Edward was there to catch her. Maybe he wasn't so bad after all. Although, he better not get used to it. I was her protector.


	2. School Daze

EMPOV:

I walked Bella to class and sat down next to her in biology. Great. It's the birth video today. I'd already seen it a million times.

"Okay, kids. Today, we're going to talk a little bit about sex. Then we're going to move onto the birth video." Everyone groaned in unison.

As the teacher droned on about the importance of safe sex and finding the right partner, Bella was shifting in her seat. She hated the sex talk.

Her blush reminded me of the time we fooled around in the 8th grade. We were at my parents' house and we decided to drink some of the vodka my dad had stored away. It was downstairs and we were watching "Cruel Intentions" when the part came up about that girl learning how to have sex.

"I'll never have sex. I don't think anybody even looks at me." Bella pouted. I laughed at her.

"We're in the 8th grade. Why are you worried about having sex now?"

She shrugged. "I guess it's not mostly sex. It's that I don't feel... attractive. Like, at all." Then, I looked at her in a different light. Bella never talked about feeling inferior. She was the smartest kid in school. She was popular. She had a great sense of humor. Then, I noticed. She was beautiful.

"Okay." I smiled. "What would you say, if we experienced some things together? I mean, I've never really been kissed..." I trailed off. She blushed.

"Uhm. What do you want to do?" She bit her lip and twisted her hair around her finger.

I leaned over and kissed her on the lips gently. "I want to kiss you." It didnt' feel wrong. not at all. In fact, I guess I'd always expected my first real kiss to be with her. She was my best friend.

She nodded and I sat her on my lap. I ran my fingers over her face and she trembled. Hell, I trembled. I was just as nervous. This was Swan we were dealing with.

I brought my lips to hers and she closed her eyes. Then I followed. Our mouths worked together softly and patiently. No weirdness.

Then, she was straddling my lap. My hands snaked through her hair up, her back, and then around to her chest. She arched at my touch. I lifted her shirt up and played with her chest a little more.

She moaned and I moaned and I felt myself get erect. I stopped it at once. She was Swan. My best bud since forever.

I snapped back to reality and smiled at Bella. She wrote on a piece of paper and shoved it to me.

"What?"

I wrote back.

"Nothing. Can't I look in your direction?" I laughed under my breath.

"No. This is embarrasing enough. I don't need you staring at me through a sex talk."

I laughed again.

Finally the bell rang and Bella was allowed out of her akwardness. Of course, Dickward was waiting for her outside. It wasn't that I was jealous, but he just seemed so... blah. I just didn't know how much I liked this kid. He was weird and akward and shit. Plus, he played soccer. Who plays soccer?

"So, Bella. I was wondering if you were free this evening." Edward smiled at her.

She looked at me almost pleading with me to step in.

"Actually, Cullen, she's coming to my house tonight. We've got English homework to work on."

Bella smiled at me in relief.

"Oh. Maybe I could help you?" He offered.

"We're all good. Thanks." I scowled.

Cullen looked at me through narrowed eyes. "Fine. Bella, I'll talk to you later." He stomped off like a child.

"So, you might as well come over anyway. I've got nothing better to do. I think Jasper was going to come over and play guitar hero or something."

"Cool. I'll see you later." She kissed me on the cheek. "I'll meet you at the jeep after school."

---------------------------------------------------

We were driving to my house and Jasper was already there.

"What's up dick bag?" Jasper yelled to me.

"Not a whole lot ass face." I laughed.

He ran over and hugged Bella up into his grasp. This didn't bother me. Jasper was a cool mother fucker.

She sniffed at his shirt and grinned. "What kind of cologne is that, Jazz?"

He smiled. "Panty dropper cologne, babe."

She giggled. "Do you always wear panty dropper cologne to Emmett's? Or is this a new thing you two are trying out?" She burst into to laughter.

"Hell naw, Bells. I wore it to school." He smirked.

Today was gonna' be a good day. No Rose. No Fuckward. Just me and my two best dudes, Bella and Jasper.


	3. Three's Company

EMPOV:

We all ran downstairs to my domain. My room was the shit. It had every immenity that a guy could ask for. I had a couple of couches, a refrigerator, a mini bar, a pool table, a big screen with surround sound... etc. I literally wanted for nothing. I guess it was my parents way of making up for when they weren't around. I looked over at Jasper and Bella laughing about something they found in a box shoved in the corner of the room. It made me smile.

I remembered back to the 9th grade. Jasper, Bella and myself were walking to the diner when some girls started giving Bella shit when Jasper and I had our backs turned. It was fucking Lauren Mallory and some other ditzy bitch. They were calling her a skank and a virgin. Jasper and I had shared a death stare and nodded. We knew what was gonna' go down.

I ran up to Bella and put my arm around her. "These summer's eves bothering you, chick?" Bella stifled a laugh. We used summer's eve to call a girl a douche.

"Fuck off, Emmett. We're talking to Bella. Why do you even hang out with her, anyway? She doesn't even put out." Lauren laughed.

Jasper stepped in. "She doesn't have to. See, the only guys worth looking at at this school are me and this guy." He pointed his thumb in my direction. "The way I see it, Bella is the hottest chick here. You're just getting your panties all twisted because we don't associate with your sorry asses." Again, did I mention, Jasper was one cool mother fucker. Even in the 9th grade.

Lauren started to say something and Jasper cut her off. "I'm sorry, I don't speak bitch very well."

They ran off crying and we walked into the diner.

I smiled as I saw fingers snapping in front of my face. "Hello. Earth to Emmett." Bella laughed.

"Oh. Sorry. I was just thinking about some stuff." I smiled. Bella and Jasper rolled their eyes.

"So, dude, when are you going on your date with Victoria?" Jasper threw a Pepsi at me.

"Supposed to be next weekend. She's going to that private school upstate. I guess she comes down like every other weekend. She's a cool chick. I don't know if I dig the red hair, but she's okay." In all reality, I just wanted to go out on a date to make Rose jealous. I know that I said I didn't care that we broke up, and it wasn't that I wanted her back, not so much as how she went about the whole thing. Flaunting James in my face like that.

"Well. I can't wait to meet her." Bella giggled. "Don't act so enthused, Em."

"Speaking of dates, Swan. How'd your night go with Lameward?" Jasper laughed.

"Oh my god. It was just terrible. He took me to eat, the ugly ass waitress with stupid hair kept hitting on him and he flirted back. Then he told me he could fucking read minds. What kind of sick shit is that?" She laughed.

Hell, we all laughed. Edward wasn't always the cool guy. Chicks thought he was hot, but he's only ever had eyes for Swan. Lord knows, I see why. In all reality, they made sense. They were both really smart, equally attractive, no I'm not a homo, and they both liked that artsy shit.

It made me think back when he wasn't so nice to her. When Jasper kicked the shit out of him for Bella.

It was also 9th grade. We had all went to the football homecoming dance together. Edward asked Bella to dance with him, and she declined. She told him she was a horrible dancer, which she totally is. Horrible.

So, he went around the school the next day telling everybody that she was all up on mine and Jasper's jocks the whole dance and that we all had orgies or some shit. First of all, ew.

When we found out about it, people were giving me and Jasper the big thumbs up and girls were laughing and pointing at Bella. When Mike Newton came up to me in gym class to ask how it was, I got pissed and walked out to find Jasper who had already had Edward down on the ground kicking the shit out of him.

"I swear to Christ, Cullen. Keep your distance from Bella. You WILL go to the principal's office and make an announcement... TODAY... that everything you said about Bella is a lie, and that you are a fag." I had never seen Jasper so pissed off. Then, I saw Bella all scratched up and slumped over by a locker bawling. She had a handful of hair. It was Lauren Mallory's. I saw her walking out of the principal's office right after I noticed Bella.

Edward hunched over and started gagging from where Jasper had knocked the air out of him from kicking him. "Okay. Fine. Just stop kicking me. I'm sorry.." And then Jasper grabbed his hair and pulled him up. "I'm not sure if you understand the 'No Bella' rule, Cullen. Don't look at her, don't think about her, don't dream about her, don't speak to her. Even in your dreams Cullen, if you so dare to dream about her, I will fucking haunt your nightmares."

I was impressed. About ten minutes later, the P.A. came on. "Students of Forks High. I want to retract everything I've said about Miss Swan.. OW OKAY.. Bella." I could hear Jasper cussing him in the background. "She is as pure as the driven snow, and I'm a.... fag for spreading rumors."

Jasper got suspended for a week and so did Edward. Good times.

Again, I snapped back into reality. "So. You guys want to get into some shit tonight?" Jasper and Bella both smiled.

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We drove my jeep down to First Beach where Alice and Rosalie were sitting by a fire and Edward was throwing rocks into the water.

Alice turned and smiled brightly at us and ran over to Bella pulling her away from me and Jasper.

JPOV:

It was so difficult for me to understand. I mean, Alice was a lesbian. How the hell did I miss that shit?

When I asked her why the sudden change in heart, she told me that I wouldn't understand. The hell I wouldn't. Pussy is pussy, and if anybody understands about wanting that, it's me.

I remembered walking around the back of the parking lot to pick Alice up from softball practice one day and I found her and Jessica Stanley making out hot and heavy against the building. At first, I was like.. Hell yeah... but then I realized that she was enjoying it a little bit too much. I coughed and cleared my throat.

Alice looked over at me horrified. I turned and walked away. "Jasper. Stop. It's not what it... okay it is what is looks like. But please, let me explain."

"Alice. What is there to explain? I just saw you making out with a girl." I was fuming.

"I can't help it. I mean, why do you think we never had sex, Jasper? I just couldn't stand the thought of that going in me." She pointed from my crotch to hers.

"Oh, so you just go for pussy now, Alice? This is re-god-damned-diculous." I hopped in my car and left her standing by herself. Alone. Crying. Scared.

When I reached the rest of the group, of course Cullen was trying to mack on Bella. I didn't like that. I have had my eye on Bella since we moved to Forks. I would never tell her, though. She's like my best friend other than Emmett, who I personally think has a thing for her, too. I would let him have his shot with her first. It was only right that I stepped aside.

I couldn't help but over hear the conversation going on between Cullen and Bella.

"Bella. I know the other night was lousy, but please let me make it up to you." He smiled some panty dropping crooked smile at her, which got every other girl to pant like dogs, but not Bella.

"Edward, you are too boring. We went to a bookstore and then you flirted with the skank waitress from the restaurant. I'd have more fun if I took Alice on a date." Alice beamed. "That wasn't an invitation."

Alice did a pretend pout and laughed. So did Bella.

Emmett stood clear of Rosalie who, even though she was my sister, did him fucking dirty. She started dating that James dick while she was seeing Emmett. As soon as she realized she had a shot, she dropped Emmett like a bad habit.

"So, brother. Are you ever going to get the courage to ask the plain girl out?" Rosalie was talking about Bella.

"Bitch, please. I don't want to date her." I lied.

"Jasper, I'm not stupid. I see the way you look at her. You guys compliment each other very nicely." She smiled. Was she possessed?

"Rose. I don't like her like that. She's my best friend."

"So, what, are you going to pull an Alice and start batting for the same team?" She laughed.

"The hell? No! I just don't want to date anybody. And, I won't ask out Swan. She's got her hands full with Emoward over there." She laughed.

"True. Give her some time. I bet she'll say yes." If only she were right.

I remember the night that I took Bella to the movies by ourselves. Emmett was sick, and Alice, Rose, and Edward had some random crap to do.

We decided to skip out on the movie and come here. We walked on the beach and sat by a fire and just laughed. She got cold and I gave her my jacket. I was then cold, so she offered to share it with me. She put it back on me and just slid her hands around my waist under the jacket.

The moment was perfect. I looked down at her, and she looked up at me. I couldn't tell, but it seemed like there was hope... that I'd kiss her... in her big brown eyes.

I leaned in and gave her a peck on the lips. Nothing more. She smiled at me and blushed that perfect pink that she always turns when she gets flustered.

Since then, we never talked about it. We never discussed it. But, that thought always played in my head each night before I went to sleep. Who was I kidding? I was crazy about Bella Swan.

EMPOV:

I saw Bella struggling to get Bitchward away from her, so I intervened. "Hey Bella." I put my arm around her and kissed her on the cheek. It was a double bonus. I noticed Rose's bitch ass was staring at me, too.

"Hey, bubba!" She grinned. It was a thank you to me, and a fuck you to Cullen. Nice.

"So, you wanna' head back to the house? Jasper is still wanting to play me in Guitar Hero. I need you there to make sure he doesn't try to use the cheat codes." I laughed.

"Fuck you, dude. I don't need cheat codes. Cheat codes are for the weak." He laughed.

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After we waved our good-byes and Cullen made another lame attempt to get Bella to go out with him, we headed toward my house.

It was getting late and Bella and Jasper decided to stay at the house. They did this frequently. I gave up my bed for Bella and Jasper and I slept wherever we could find a spot.

Once we got done playing "Hero" Bella was asleep on the couch. Jasper scooped her up into his arms and carried her off to the bed. He took her shoes off and tucked her in, and then planted a soft kiss on her forehead. "Goodnight my Bella." He whispered.

I wish that he'd just date her already. Get it over with. It was painful watching him want her and not do shit about it.

"Dude. Just ask her out already. I'm sure she'll say yes." I whispered.

"Nah. You haven't asked her, yet. I don't want to interfere." Still, a cool mother fucker.

"No offense, but I could never date Bella. She's like my best friend in the world." I lied. Deep down inside I always knew that I wanted to try to date her, just to see what it would come out to.

"I don't know man." He looked troubled. Then he looked at Bella sleeping. "Just look at her. Look at how god-damned beautiful she is. Then you have Cullen trying to work his pathetic magic on her and then there's every other pair of legs with a dick attached that's chasing after her skirt. I can't be another number. I can't just add to the list of followers. She's too good for that." His voice was sincere, but pained.

I slapped a hand on his shoulder. "Do you love her?"

"What kind of question is that? Of course I love her, she's my best friend."

"Don't be a jackass, do you love her?"

"I think so." My heart fell a little. But, they were my best friends. I wanted to see them both happy.

"Then, you have my permission, as her personal body guard, to take a chance." I laughed.

He smiled and touched fists with me. "Thanks, dude."

With that I pulled out the hide-a-bed from the couch and patted it. "You might be hers tomorrow, but you're mine tonight big boy." I busted out laughing.

Jasper ran his hands over his face. "This is so disgusting."

I laughed harder.


	4. Homecoming 20

EMPOV:

I woke up with a stiff back this morning. I slept on that fucking hide-a-bed with Jasper's lanky ass hoping I wouldn't get butt raped in my sleep. Then I realized that he wasn't the gay one, that was Alice.

I rolled out of my bed and saw Bella sleeping peacefully in my bed. This was the only way I pictured her in my bed. Not naked, not horny, just peaceful. Protected. I couldn't help but smile at her.

Thinking of the conversation I had with Jasper the night before, my heart sank a little. I had given Bella up without a fair fight. I decided to sit the bench this time instead of starting first string. Normally, I'd be all up on that. But, I'm pretty sure Jasper has been in love with her since he first met her, and my feelings weren't all too noticeable until the end of our tenth grade year.

Bella and I were making posters for her to run for Junior class president. I noticed that she had some paint on her nose and when I went to rub it off, I didn't realize that I had even more paint on my thumb and smeared a whole new color. We ended up getting into a paint war. Bella laughed and came at me in full force attack mode.

Now, if that had been Rosalie. I'd be drinking the paint for getting her dirty or her clothes ruined. Bella is just a layed back chick. She doesn't do drama. She hates being the center of attention. She dresses for comfort, although Alice would rather she didn't. She just is. She's almost like a female version of me, except I fucking love being the center of attention.

Then I looked over at her and she was stretching and yawning. I smacked her on the butt. "Wake up Swan. You need to cook us breakfast." I laughed.

Since my parents pretty much are non-existent in my every day life, Bella always cooks for me and usually Jasper, too. Especially when she stays over with us.

"Can you let me open my fucking eyes first? Shit! I barely crack an eye lid and you're hollering for food." She groaned. I laughed. She was so ferocious. Haha.

"Well, Don't wait too long. We've got plans for today, remember?" I was now grinning from ear to ear.

"Do not remind me." She huffed. Bella had to go dress shopping for homecoming. I'm confident that Jasper will ask her. I planned on taking Rosalie anyway, since James can't come to a high-school function. Fucker.

"I think I might have found you a date." I smiled eagerly at her.

"Fuck you. I'm not going with Cullen." She hissed. I laughed at he accusation.

"Hell naw, Bella. Give me more credit than that. I was talking about Jasper." I nodded my head in his direction.

She grinned a little bit at my suggestion. "Just let him ask you though, because I'm telling you. He's got it bad for you Bells." I winked at her. She blushed my favorite pink.

"I dunno. I don't think he likes me. I always see him flirting with Angela." She hesitated.

"Fuck. Angela is all up on his jock because she's trying to make Eric jealous. If you don't go with him, Cullen is always waiting in the wings. And we all know how that shit went down the last time." I shook my head. She flinched.

"Fine, but he's stirring around. No more about this." She smiled. She looked excited. "I'm going to run up and fix you guys some breakfast. The usual?"

"Fuckin' A! You know it. But, make mine double. Just because the other team forfeited this week doesn't mean I'm not working out. Carbo load, Bella!" I shouted up the stairs.

Jasper clapped me on the shoulder as he walked to the bathroom. "She making the usual?" It should probably be weird that Jasper and I talk to each other while we piss or even shit sometimes, but that's how we roll.

"Hell to the yeah! So, you're all set with asking Bella to the homecoming dance, dude." I semi-yelled to him.

"Uh. Dude. I can't take her." He hesitated. I heard the toilet flush and then the faucet run. At least the fucker had the decency to flush the toilet.

"Why the fuck not? You just said you liked her last night. Dude. You're going to end up making her go with Cullen. That's some fucked up shit." I was disappointed.

"Trust me. It isn't that I don't want to take her. I do. I'd want to be the one who gets to have her on his arm. But, I told Angela that I'd go with her. She's trying to get back at Eric." I felt the vein throbbing in my forehead.

"You. Tell. Her. To. Fuck. Off. Tell her to ask Cullen. You take Bella. Tell her that you forgot you and Bella made plans to go last year or some shit."

He picked up his phone and called her. "Hey.... Well, it's about the dance. I can't go with you. I actually forgot that Bella and I made plans to go with each other last year.... Well, you could go with Edward... So what, he doesn't have a date. Bella is going with me... If you don't ask him or someone else, then you can go by yourself.... I already apologized... You too." He hung up the phone.

"Dude, she was fucking crying. You know how that shit affects me. She's getting the short end here. Going with Cullen might as well be like going alone." He shook his head and looked down.

"Grow some fuckin' balls, dude. If you don't want Bella, I'll gladly take her to the dance and tell Rose to step off. Because, I wouldn't want Cullen to fuckin' try to Emo his way into her heart with all of his Criss Angel mind reading bullshit." I glared. I was challenging him, and if I know Jasper, that dude will take a challenge.

"No way in hell am I letting you take her to the dance, bitch. I've got this." He punched his fist to mine.

I laughed before he headed upstairs and yelled, knowing Bella probably could hear. "I ask you, the next time I share a bed with you, don't cup my balls. I'm very sensitive."

"Fuck you, man!" He yelled back. "Nasty mother fucker."

"That's not what you said last night! Don't you love me anymore?" I was now in tears from laughing so hard.

"I hate you man." He laughed.

JPOV:

As I reached the top step, thankful that I was away from Emmett and his homo-erotic tendencies, I saw her. Bella. She was standing at the stove frying pancakes, eggs, sausage, bacon. She had the oranges out for the good stuff... fresh squeezed orange juice.

"You need any help?" I flashed my million dollar smile at her.

"Sure! Just grab the oranges, cut them in half, and squeeze them into the pitcher." She grinned at me.

"Yes, ma'am." I nodded at her and quickly went to work, standing beside her.

"So. You and Emmett, huh? I knew it was bound to happen sooner or later." She busted out laughing. I had to make a mental note to put laxative in Emmett's protein shake later.

"Man, fuck that. I don't bat for that team. Actually, I do have something I'd like to discuss with you, Bells. If you don't mind." I heard her breath pick up. Showtime.

"Uhm. Okay, Jasper. What is it?" She practically stammered.

"Homecoming is coming up. I just wanted to know if you wanted to go with me this time. I know I'm no Cullen." I laughed. "But, it would be my extreme honor to have you on my arm, Miss Bella." I figured I would throw in some of that Southern charm.

She blushed. The heat from her face was almost overwhelming. "I'd love to." Her face was stiff. Almost like she was going to puke.

"Are you okay?" I looked her over.

"I'm fine. Just didn't expect you to ask me, is all. I figured you would go stag this year and weigh your options with all of the single ladies." She finally lightened up and winked at me.

"And let Cullen try to put his grubby hands all over you? Hell no. I'll chance people thinking you're my girl." I winked at her. She blushed again.

It was the weekend and Homecoming was here. Emmett had led his team to another victory, and Rose looked gorgeous as she walked across the field, where Emmett had to crown her. Of course, she couldn't be traditional, she had to wear a red ball gown instead of the normal white.

Now, tonight, the night after the game was homecoming. Emmett and Bella were going to meet us here, since Rose was going to go with Emmett and Bella was my date.

EMPOV:

I adjusted my tie before I got out of the jeep. Damn I look smooth. Rosalie is gonna' be fuckin' jealous when all of the ladies are checkin' me out.

I ran up to Bella's door and knocked. Charlie answered. "Hey, Emmett. You're looking sharp. Bells will be right down." He put his hand on my shoulder as he led me into the foyer.

Then I saw her. Perfection. Bella. She had her hair put back into loose curls and she had on a navy blue dress that flowed when she walked.

"You uh. You look great, Swan." Charlie swatted me on the back of the head. "Sorry. Bella. You look beautiful." I kissed her hand. "Shall we?" I put my arm out for her to put hers through.

"We'll be back this evening, dad." She yelled back for Charlie. He just waved us on and smiled. He knew that she was in safe hands with me and Jasper.

The drive to the Hale's house was pretty much the same as always. Bella and I fought over what music to listen to, and how fast I was driving. When we got the front of their house, Jasper and Rosalie were waiting for us on the porch.

We all piled into the jeep, Rosalie and Bella sat in the back, as per Rosalie's request, and Jasper and I up in the front.

Everybody glanced at how we all looked. I even had to admit, Rosalie looked fuckin' bone-able. Too bad she was with that dick. Then, there was Bella and Jasper. He was wearing some vintage suit that only that smooth mother fucker could pull off. On anybody else, it would've looked fuckin' stupid. He looked at Bella like she was the only person in the room, just as she deserves.

We made our way through the crowds to our usual hang out spot for the dance. There waiting on us was Alice, who was flying solo and Dickward, who was uneventfully avoiding Angela. His eyes stayed glued on Bella. Hell, my eyes caught a look from time to time.

Bella took turns dancing with me and Jasper. Everytime Edward asked her she shot him down. Claiming that she vowed never to dance with him after the shit stunt he pulled and got his ass beat for it.

I almost felt bad for the guy. He was absolute, butt crazy, in love with her. But, i just didn't like him, because he looks at her like she's going to be dinner or some shit. Alice kind of looks at her like that, too, but I'd pay to see that shit. A man can dream.

I was dancing with her. "So, Cullen won't get out from under your skirt, huh?" I chuckled.

She hit me in the arm. "Shut the fuck up Emmett. You and Rosalie are doing a good job at keeping distance from each other."

"Yeah. You and Jasper are lookin' pretty cozy though." I winked at her.

She sighed. "Yeah. I really like him, I think." She paused. "You know, I thought someone else liked me even more than Jasper, but he never did come around to saying anything, so I just gave up." Her eyes lowered.

I felt my heart drop, because I knew that she was talking about me. "Why didn't you ever say anything to him?" I prodded.

"I don't know. I don't think I was his type, anyway." She laughed. It took everything in me not to kiss her. I couldn't. She wasn't mine. I blew my shot. She let me know.


	5. Roses Are Red

EPOV:

I kept looking at Jasper and Bella the rest of the night, pretty much kicking myself in the ass because it could've been me here with her tonight. I should have just kept my mouth shut and asked her myself. Fuck Jasper. It should be me. But, it's not, and she likes him. I'll respect that.

"Whatcha staring at Emmett?" Rosalie finally decided to open her stupid mouth. Apparently I was gawking at Bella.

"Isn't there a college dude that you need to go blow, Rosalie?" I snapped.

"Well, I'm offended. You used to like it when I did that to you." I had to smile at that. Hell yeah I liked it. I mean, her lips were like amazing.

"Look. It's nothing. I'm just pissed that I had to show up with you on my arm. That's all." I barked.

"Sure. Keep telling yourself that." She paused and the guffawed. "Oh. My. God. You like Bella, don't you? Holy shit! I knew there was something fucking weird going on between you two!"

"Shut the fuck up, Rose. It's nothing like that. We're just friends. She's got Jasper." I said that just a little too bit too angry.

She looked at me. A look of concern in her eyes, she actually looked sympathetic.

"Em. I've known you for quite some time now. And, I have dated you off and on for god knows how long. And, I've never seen you look at me half the way you have always looked at her." She nodded in Bella's direction, who was laughing and dancing with Jasper. "But, you have to understand. You gave her up to Jasper. You can't ruin that now. He would never do that to you."

I finally returned her gaze. "How can the most self centered person in this whole school actually notice someone other than herself?" I laughed under my breath.

She sighed and sat next to me. "Believe it or not, I loved you at one point. I really thought that you and I were going to be together forever." She giggled. "But, I noticed the way you look at her. The way you smile when you say her name. The way, Emmett, that you were more concerned about her well being than yours or mine, or hell anybody else's for that matter."

Rosalie went on speaking. "I mean, I had our kids' names picked out. I honestly thought we were the real thing. But, I look at Bella and the way that you look at her, and I see a history. One that you and I never had together. Nobody knows you better than her. She's been there for every major event in your life, and even the ones that didn't really matter. I would never experience that. I mean, I'll never have that with anybody, but that connection that you and Bella have, it's like... magic." She smiled at me, her eyes were welling up. I actually felt a little bad for her.

She continued. "So, my going for James wasn't because I was sick of you and me. It was because I always knew in the back of my mind, that I was no Bella. And to you, I could dress from head to toe in designer clothes, the best hair and makeup and the best jewelry, and to you, Bella would still be the most beautiful thing in the room."

Before I could say anything the lump in the back of my throat had caught. Rosalie stood up and kissed the top of my head. "We're still friends, monkey man. Always."

I wanted to die. Right there in the middle of the homecoming dance. Then, Assward came over and tried to spark up a conversation.

"So. Bella and Jasper?" He prodded.

I nodded my head. Not wanting to talk to him.

"How the hell did that happen? I mean, I guess it should've been expected." He caught my attention.

"How's that?"

"Well, I mean, Jasper has had it bad for her since I can remember. Hell, I've tried everything in the world to get her to just give me one shot, just to try and make her happy. But, then I realize, she's never going to look at me the same way she's looking at him."

And that's when I actually felt sorry for Edward Cullen. At that point, I realized that he felt the way that Rosalie felt. He saw the way she looked at Jasper like Rosalie saw the way I looked at Bella. The thought was pretty heart breaking.

"Yeah man, I know. Trust me." I changed the subject. "So, how's it going with Angela?" He rolled his eyes.

"She's a super pain in the ass, mostly. She just talks and talks and I can't get her to shut up." He laughed. I found myself laughing with him.

I sighed. "How come we never hang out, Cullen?" I was being serious.

"Well, probably because you guys were always giving me a hard time instead of trying to be friends with me."

"Dude, I'm sorry about that. Just protective over Bella, you know?"

He laughed. "I honestly thought that you and Bella would've been going out instead of her and Jasper. You guys seem so close."

I did a fake laugh. "Yeah, that's what everyone has been saying."

Then, Bella ran up to me all kind of excited. "Great news, guys!"

Cullen and I both groaned in unison. "What's so great?"

She was all smiles. "Aww. Cheer up. Jasper and I are now officially an item." She was practically glowing.

"That's great, Bella. Seriously." I tried to sound enthused.

"Oh. Cool. Congrats." Cullen sounded just as pathetic as I did.

Then Jasper caught up with Bella and kissed her on the cheek. She was blushing. Jasper was making her happy, and who was I to stand in her way?

When I decided that I was tired of the school scene for the night, I invited the school over to my house for the usual homecoming party.

This ought to be interesting.


	6. Fight For Your Right To Party

EPOV:

So, here we are and everybody is piling in to my house for the big homecoming party. It was times like these when I was glad that my parents built the biggest house in Forks.

I'm pretty sure that most of the highschool was at the house. Some were bringing food, others were bringing alcohol. I was going to have to keep an eye on everybody and make sure nobody drove home. Plus, I didn't want one of these fuckers to break my mom's shit. She'd flip out on me.

I made my usual rounds around the party, saying my "hellos" and "glad you could make its." My eyes were always searching for Bella. I didn't have to search too long, because I heard her laugh above everybody else in the house.

When I finally saw where she was, I noticed Jasper was trying to teach her how to strum the guitar. She is so uncoordinated. It reminded me of the time I attempted to teach her to dance our sophomore year.

She was going to the dance for the first time alone, as she usually went with me. She always felt awkward. That year Rosalie and I were getting pretty serious, and Jasper wasn't going because of the falling out he had with Alice. So, Bella was the odd man out. Edward offered to take her, but she was still bitter with him over the shit he pulled before.

"Okay. Just follow my lead, Bella." I put my arms around her waist and leaned over to press the play button. I put her arms around my neck. She blushed.

"Emmett. I probably won't even dance. You know I don't ever dance at these things, anyway. I just stand in the corner and watch everybody else." She laughed.

"Well, you have to dance with me." I teased.

I pressed play and "I Will Always Love You" was playing. It was from the mix cd that Rosalie had made for me on Christmas.

"Sorry. Rosalie." I chucked.

"'S Okay." She laughed.

I started swaying us to the beat of the song and she kept stepping on my toes.

"Jesus, Bella. You're going to make me an invalid before this session is over." I snapped.

She threw her hands in the air and her eyes started welling up. "I fucking told you I didn't want to do this, but you insisted. Well, you don't have to worry about me dancing with you at the dance, I'm not going. You just got your dance, you jerk."

Then she stomped out of the house and walked the two blocks to her house.

I was snapped back into reality when I realized that Jasper leaned down and kissed Bella. I think that my heart stopped but then I was slapped in the chest with a hand holding a bottle of beer. Cullen.

"You look like you could use this." He smirked.

I tipped my bottle toward him as a sign of thanks and started chugging.

"Why am I so stupid, man?" I asked him.

He let out a huff of air. "You probably just didn't know your feelings for her, that's all. I mean, everybody else in the free world could see that you were all about her but you." He laughed.

I took another swig of my beer. Bella was now all by herself and Jasper was walking toward me. Fuck me.

"Sup guys?" He took a swig of his beer and stood with us to face Bella. "What are we all looking at?"

Edward laughed. "You and Bella."

Jasper cocked an eyebrow. "And, why are you staring at us?"

Cullen spoke up again. "It's interesting. You guys actually make a pretty decent couple." I had to thank Cullen later for covering for my ass.

"Thanks, man. Emmett can I talk to you alone for a second?" Jasper nodded his head toward the front door. Fresh air. I needed it.

JPOV:

I noticed that Emmett had been staring blankly at Bella and I for the better part of the night. If he didn't want me with her, he shouldn't have suggested it.

Being with her made me feel whole. She was everything I've ever wanted in a girlfriend. Hell, in a best friend. The best thing about her, is that she hasn't been around the block like most of the girls in this school. She has very strong morals about sex. She wants to wait for the right person. And I wasn't going to even try to push it. I didn't feel like that with her. I didn't feel like that's the only thing I wanted.

After I asked Emmett to come outside to talk to me, he got a relieved look on his face. I thought that shit was fucking odd.

"What's the deal, dude?" I was blunt about it.

He gave me a puzzled look. "The hell? About what?"

"You're all down in the dumps, man. Are you being like that because of Bella?"

He laughed. "Naw. I've just been doing some thinking. Everybody here is taken but me, that's all."

I kind of felt bad for a minute. He was alone. Rose had Douche Bag College Dick, and I had Bella, and Alice had Jessica.

"Cheer up, dude. There's like all kinds of single ladies who would beg for a chance to date the infamous Emmett McCarty." I laughed.

"This is true. Tanya is looking pretty hot tonight." He stretched his neck looking through the door at her.

"Well, get your ass in there and make a move." I pushed his back to go through the front door.

"Okay, okay stop pushing. Unless you just like to touch me." He busted out laughing. He was acting like Emmett of old.

Once I got back over to Bella everybody was talking to her. She looked.... happy. I did that. I made her happy, I think. Then, I noticed they started laughing and cat calling across the room.

I looked to see what was so funny, and there he was. Emmett Fucking McCarty was full on making out with Tanya Denali.

When I sat down with Bella she whispered in my ear. "Let's get outta' here." I felt a lump form in my throat and wanted to jump out of my skin. The way she said it was seductive. It was fucking hot.

We drove for awhile listening to music and ended up on a back road. "Pull over." She said lightly.

"Yes ma'am." I was.. nervous. Why was I so nervous?

I pulled the car over on a gravel patch and she turned the radio down and twisted in her seat to look at me.

"Jasper. I've been thinking." She was twirling hair around her finger. Her eyes were sparkling, but filled with something. Lust.

I felt my breath catch. Now, normally, I would be all over that shit. But, Bella. She was different. I loved her.

"What.. What were you thinking?" I managed to stumble out.

"I think that we should make love, Jasper." She was blushing. Even in the dark with only the light of the radio shining on her, I could see she was a crimson red.

I started to talk. "Bella I-" She put her fingers over my lips. She climbed over the console and straddled my lap. I had never seen this side of Bella before, but I'm pretty sure that I liked it. She started kissing me. It was urgent. Fuck, it was hot as hell.

I felt her grinding on me and my dick got hard. Thank God I had something to work with, or this shit would be embarrassing.

I realized as she was kissing my neck that Bella was a virgin. I raised her up off of me. My dick would hate me, but my heart would love me forever.

"Bella. We need to stop." I stuttered.

"Oh? Are you sure about that?" She raised up and started rubbing my dick with her hand. "I think you want to." She purred.

"Not like this." I was very plain, despite the sudden loss of blood from my head.

She sat back and had a hurt look on her face. She climbed back over to her seat and her eyes started welling up. I heard her sniffle as I ran my hands over my face. "Bella." I was cut off.

"Am I not good enough, Jasper? I mean. I want this. I've wondered a thousand times what it would be like to be with you like this." She practically sobbed.

I sighed. "Bella. Don't cry, darlin'. It's not that I don't want you, believe me, I want you. Just. Just not in my car. Your first time should be... memorable." I took her hand and kissed it.

I saw a tiny smile form on her face. "Then, let's go back to your house. Your parents are out of town."

With that, I started the car and headed home.

EPOV:

When I walked up to Tanya, she was looking ten different kinds of fuckable. She had on a strappy black number that clung to her curves. Her blond hair was hung in loose curls and her lips were painted a ruby red color.

Without words I walked up to her, flashed her the dimples and kissed her. She apparently didn't disagree, because she instantly started running her hands all over my body and through my hair.

When she broke the kiss I smiled and said,"You're welcome." I winked at her and walked off, hoping to find Jasper and Bella. When I couldn't find them, Cullen showed up out of nowhere with, yet, another beer.

"You'll need this." He smirked again.

"Where's Jazz and Bella?"

"Gone. She told him she wanted to go somewhere to be alone and they bolted out the door during your makeout session." We both took a swig of our beer.

I ran out the door hoping that I would catch them before they left, but Jasper's mustang was gone. Fuck me. I dialed both of their cell phones but they both went straight to voice mail.

I was genuinely freaking out. I felt the room around me start spinning, and I suddenly felt nauseous. It dawned on me what they were going to do. I was getting more pissed by the second.

I had to reassure myself on several accounts that Jasper knew Bella was a virgin and that he wasn't so stupid as to take that from her.

The party continued as I layed in my bed staring at the ceiling and at my cellphone, hoping that one of them would call me. They didn't.

This is going to be a long night.


	7. The Long Kiss Goodnight

JPOV:

We drove to my place to possibly continue what she started in the car. My mind was going a million miles a minute, contemplating whether I should do this or not. I knew I wanted Bella. I knew I loved Bella. I didn't know if she LOVED me. Not like I loved her. I didn't want this to be something she'll live to regret later.

We walked into the house and she nearly attacked me. I can't say that I wasn't ten different kinds of turned on. Our hands and tongues were all over each other. I could seem to get close enough to her. I stood her against the wall and ran my hands underneath her skirt and beneath her panties. She was soaked. My eyes immediately started to bug out and she smiled at me lazily, her eyes filled with lust and desire.

I kissed her neck as my fingers played a melody to her heartbeat on her aching core. Her moans were the accompanying words to the symphony that I had waited my whole life to complete. In this moment, she was my opus.

I gently slipped one finger inside of her and she gently whispered my name. Damn. Hot.

I felt her clinch around my finger as her wetness pooled onto my fingers. Again. Hot.

I don't think that I have ever wanted another woman so badly in my life. Not even Alice. But, I was still conflicted.

I didn't know if I wanted to take her virginity. Not tonight. I wanted her to be absolutely sure about this.

"Bella." I pulled back from her. "Are you sure you want this?"

Her eyes were glazed from passion and she nodded her head. "Yes, Jasper. I'm more than ready."

"I don't want you to regret this, Bella. I need to know something before I can take the single most important thing in your life."

She gave me a confused look. "Okay."

"Do you love me, Bella? I mean, do you honestly love me with every fiber in your being. Because, if you don't, at least not just yet, I'm going to stop this. Bella, I love you. I mean, honestly love you."

She looked down for a minute and my heart nearly stopped. She didn't love me the same way that I loved her. I could just feel it.

Her eyes met mine again and she smiled. "Jasper. I do love you. Maybe not the way you love me, at least, not yet. But, I'm willing to give it a shot if you want to stick around to find out." My heart started beating again. It wasn't love, but I would take the possibility.

She again smiled at me, lust playing across her lips. "We don't have to have sex, Jasper. There are other things that we could do, that could be just as fun."

Fuckin' A!!! I love this chick.

EMPOV:

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Where the hell can they be? I had given up a long time ago on the party and the guests, seeing as half of them seemed to have either passed out or were just chilling out.

I hopped in my car, I was too sober to sit by myself. I went by Bella's house and climbed the same tree I had been climbing for years. I opened the window hoping that she was just in the restroom and sat down on her bed, grabbing the stuffed bear I had won her at the fair when we were 11.

Looking around the room I thought back to the first time I climbed the tree to her room.

I was 8 and my parents were arguing as usual. My mom was being her usual bitchy drunk self, and my dad was pissed that the money he told her to use on me for a birthday present wasn't used properly. I had never seen my dad so angry. They were screaming things at each other that I had never heard in my life to that point.

I got scared and just ran out the back door. I ran to Bella's house and thought about telling Charlie to arrest my parents for fighting, but I didn't. I ran there to find Bella and hope she could make things okay. She was always so grown up, even then.

I sized the tree up and swallowed hard when I realized how high I had to climb. I had to do it. I had to get away from all of the craziness of my house. I jumped up and caught the lowest limb and swung my foot up to pull myself the rest of the way onto the branch. I continued climbing until I reached Bella's window. I looked inside and she was sleeping peacefully. Not like me, who was staring like a creep inside of her window.

I tapped on her window with my finger, hoping not to startle her. She stirred around and I whispered, "Bella" until she opened the window.

"Emmett. You're going to get killed. If not by the fall from the tree, then by your parents."

I started crying. My parents were the reason I was here in the first place.

A pained look came across her face when she saw me and waved for me to come in. "Just be quiet. If Charlie hears you he'll kill us both!"

"Bella, I'm sorry. I didn't know where else to go." I sobbed.

She leaned her head on my arm. "What happened?"

"My mom and dad were fighting. It was all over me. I just.. I'm scared." I sniffled.

She started crying then too. That's when I knew that she was without a doubt my best friend.

Still crying we layed in her bed, me at the foot and her at the top, until we fell asleep. That was the first of many times that I had snuck into Bella's room when I was growing up.

It became a ritual when something was bothering me. I didn't call her, I just climbed up my "SOS Tree."

I snapped back to reality when I realized that I had been sitting there for nearly 30 minutes feeling sorry for myself and that her bed was made and there was no other noise but Charlie snoring in the other room.

I climbed down my SOS Tree and headed toward Jasper's house. I needed to talk to him.

JPOV:

Bella and I took turns going down on each other. For someone who'd never done it, I think she did very well.

We layed on my bed tracing patterns on each other's bare skin. The sheet was wrapped just over her chest and only right above my waist. The glow from the moonlight highlighted her beautiful face.

We were disturbed from our trance when I heard the door slam. "Shit." I croaked.

"Is that your parents?" She was nervous.

"I don't know. We didn't lock the door when we came in." I whispered. I hope this wasn't someone coming to kill us. I didn't want Charlie to find me in an indecent position with his only child.

But, when I looked up at my doorway, there was someone looking to kill, alright. But it wasn't Bella. It was me.

EMPOV:

"The fuck?" I growled.

"Dude, fucking knock." Jasper practically yelled.

Fucking knock? Mother fucker? You're laying there with a former virgin, who probably didn't know what the hell she was doing in the first place, and you are telling me to knock? That cocky mother fucker.

"I want to talk to you. Now." I snapped. I walked down to the living room, because quite frankly, I don't want to see him naked. That would only confirm what was going through my mind anyway.

He finally walked down the stairs in only a pair of jeans. I wanted to rip his dick off and shove it up his ass right there.

"Em? Do you always come barging into people's houses unannounced?" Jasper scowled at me.

"You know, fuck you. I needed to talk to you. If you assholes wouldn't turn off your phones, I wouldn't have had to walk in here to find... this." I was waving my hands in the air.

He pinched his nose with his fingers and huffed. "We didn't do what you think we did. Not that it's any of your business, but I know how much you care for her. I couldn't do it."

A small pang of relief hit me, but it doesn't explain why they were naked.

"Okay, why the fuck are you naked? You guys just decide that was the cool shit to do nowadays?" I barked.

"Kiss my ass, Emmett. Don't get all pissed off at me, just because you were too chicken shit to tell Bella how you really feel. Don't come up in my house screaming at me and judging what she and I do, because you're an insecure pussy. If you remember correctly, you gave me the go-ahead and practically pushed me to do it." He was yelling.

I heard crying as I looked up to see Bella was standing at the foot of the stairs. She heard what we had said.

"Bella. Don't cry." Jasper tried to sooth her.

"Fuck you, Jasper. You were forced to date me? Am I some kind of fucking charity case? And Emmett? What the fuck man? You have no right to get pissed off at him. Like he said, he actually had the balls to step up and ask me out. Not like you."

I felt like I had the wind knocked out of me. Jasper stood there looking all kinds of confused.

"In case you two were wondering, I am done. Done with this, do you understand me? I want nothing to do from either one of you. Never again. Don't pick me up for school, don't sit by me in class, just don't. You two were supposed to be my best friends. My best fucking friends, and you are acting like I am some award to be won. So fuck both of you." She stomped out the door leaving Jasper and I in total shock.

We sat silent for a moment and I finally spoke up, realizing what an asshole I was.

"This is all my fault." I almost whispered.

"Well, it's mine, too. I mean, I shouldn't have even asked her out. Not that I don't love her, man, because I do. But, you love her, too. I shouldn't have stepped in."

I tried to smile, but I couldn't.

"How do we fix this?" I was near tears.

Jasper plopped down on the couch next to me and rubbed his hands over his face.

"We don't."

"The hell man? I want to fix this. We just ripped her fucking heart out, and we don't fix it?" I was getting angry.

"Let her figure out that she needs us in her life. Look, I'll take her any way I can. If all I can be is a friend, then I'll take it. But you.. you need her, man."

The cool mother fucker was back. He was willing to step aside for good this time and take the backseat for me and Bella.

"We're such dicks."

"Yep. It's true. We can't stop fucking up."

"Nope."

We groaned in unison. "Fuck."


	8. Milk Was A Bad Choice

EMPOV:

It had been 6 weeks since Bella has even so much as looked at me or Jasper. I looked like hell. I couldn't shave, hell it's disgusting to say, but it looked like I didn't shower.

When I'd pass by the other kids at school they would all give me strange looks, which I wasn't used to. But, I didn't care. I'd lost Bella, and there was no way to get her back. Not after the bullshit that Jasper and I put her through.

Jasper and I talked about the ordeal, and decided we were better than being mad at each other. We were dudes. He agreed to step aside and let me try to make my way with Bella, but not before making me promise to do it the right way.

"Don't half ass this, McCarty. She deserves the grand gesture." He'd say. What the fuck was I going to do as a grand gesture?

I tried leaving notes in her locker, and I felt a little stalkerish waiting in the wings to see if she'd read them, but she always threw them onto the floor and walked away.

If I tried to call her house, Chief Swan would give the frustrated sigh and tell me she's not home, when I knew good and well she was. She ignored her friends, except for Alice, Rose, and Edward.

I called Alice up.

"Talk to me." She practically sang.

"Tell me what to do, Alice." I begged.

I heard her go silent for a few moments before she spoke up.

"You need to make a grand gesture for her love."

"Why do people keep telling me that? What am I going to do? Bella likes simple things, she's not a grand type of person." I almost yelled.

She sighed. "Meet me at the diner in ten minutes."

APOV:

I sat at the diner waiting on Emmett to show up. I played lazily with the straw wrapper and noticed him walking by.

He came in looking like ass.

"You can't even bother to shave? Are you fucking serious man? You look like Will Ferrell in Anchorman. You know, when he's walking down the street chugging the milk? You're just missing the red jacket." I snapped.

"I don't care anymore. It's not about looks, don't you see that? I don't even care about myself enough to work out."

I nearly choked. Working out and looking good were the biggest thing in his life, next to Bella.

I sat for a moment waiting for him to ask me for help. I could see he clearly needed it.

"Tell me what to do, Alice. Please."

I sat still for awhile and pondered. "Does Bella still have that big tree by her window?" I smirked.

A look of hope lit up his face. "Yeah! She does. But... but why?"

"You used to climb it all the time when you needed her to fix you, right? To make everything right?"

He paused. "Yeah. I did."

"Climb the tree. She if she's ready to make you better. Shit, it can't hurt. You look like death warmed over." I held my nose. "And you smell kinda' ripe."

JPOV:

I decided to let Bella go. She loved Emmett, I could see it in her eyes. I can't say that it didn't hurt a little, but I would soon enough get over it. I am Jasper fucking Hale. I got this shit on lock down.

Emmett called me up and asked me for a suggestion for a love poem to recite to Bella outside her bedroom window. I didn't hesitate. He was my best friend, and so was she. I gave him a Maya Angelou poem, "In and Out of Time." He thanked me and hung up.

Good luck man.

EMPOV:

I jumped in the shower and brushed my teeth. I shaved my face and drove down to the barber to get my hair trimmed up. If I was going to do this, I wasn't going to do it half-assed.

It was around 8 p.m. when I pulled up to the curb outside of Bella's yard. The air smelled thick of rain and I knew that if I was going to do this, it should be soon. I'd deal with the consequences of Charlie some other time.

I climbed my way up by her bedroom window. I could see her holding a picture of me that she kept on her dresser. It looked like she was crying. I yelled just loud enough for her to hear me. She shot a scowling look at me. A feeling of pure terror went through me.

I begged for her to open the window and let me talk to her. It took some begging, but she finally did.

"You've got two minutes. That's it." She snapped.

"That's all I need."

I started rambling off how sorry I was and how big of an ass I am. She rolled her eyes, keeping her arms crossed the whole time.

I handed her the poem and it started pouring. It was freezing.

"I'm just..s-sorry, Bella." I managed to stammer through chattering teeth.

"Leave. Now." Her expression was black and evil. Fuckin' hell.

I climbed down the tree, the rain soaking me. I wanted to ball up and die right there.

I got to the edge of her lawn when I heard the door slam shut.

"Why now, Emmett?" It was her voice. Her saying my name gave me more goosebumps than I already had.

"Why w-what?" I chattered.

"You just realize you love me? What's with climbing the tree to my window. Did you think that it was going to fix everything?"

I paused for a minute. I was shaking. Not from nerves, but because I was fucking cold.

"B-Bella. I've loved you my whole life, in one form or another. J-Just b-because I didn't t-tell you until recently d-doesn't mean I mean it any less. I c-climbed the t-tree because I n-needed to see you. I'll come b-back every day of the r-rest of m-my life if that's w-what it takes." I put my hands to my mouth and exhaled sharply trying to warm them up.

Bella stood expressionless before me. "You only say you love me, because you're alone. If you had someone you wouldn't feel this way. It's too convenient."

"I w-would go to the p-pits of h-hell for you." I took shaky steps to her and put my icy hands on her face. My speech suddenly seemed so clear. "You're my heaven, Bella. T-there isn't a hell on this earth that I w-wouldn't go through to be with you."

The tears started flowing from her eyes then. Even through the rain and tears, her eyes were the most beautiful thing within a ten mile radius.

She hit me in the chest as I hugged her to me. "I love you, B-Bella."

She looked up at me with a half smile. "What took you so long?"

Then as I was going to attempt to kiss her, Charlie had to come out the door with his cockblock radar on just before my lips met hers. "You kids are gonna' get sick out here. Get in the house."

Okay, so maybe he was helping me out, I hope.

We walked into the house and Charlie brought me some towels while Bella went and changed in her room.

"I'm going to bed now, son. Keep your hands off of my daughter. You hurt her again, they won't find your body, do I make myself clear?"

I stopped drying off long enough to swallow the lump that had formed in my throat. "Yes. Crystal, Chief."

He padded up to his bedroom and Bella leaned over the banister and waved me up. I walked up the stairs to her room and she started rifling through her drawers, apparently trying to find one of my hundred t-shirts she'd borrowed in her lifetime.

She tossed a gray Forks High t-shirt at me and a pair of sleep pants that I kept there for emergencies.

"I can go in the other room if you want to change." She blushed.

"No. I am sure I don't have anything you haven't see before, Bella." I laughed.

I tugged my shirt off and her mouth gaped open. She walked slowly toward me and handed me the towel. I grinned a little out of the corner of my mouth.

"You never did finish that kiss." She was looking up at me through her eye lashes.

I lifted her chin with my finger, looked deep into her eyes and just before closing mine, I kissed her. Gently. Sweetly. Lovingly. Because, that's what she deserved. Love. No more of this half-assed shit anymore.

I was going to go big or go home. I made the grand gesture, and now I was reaping the benefits. Who knew a cowboy and a sprite would be so helpful?

Things can only get better from here, right?


	9. New Beginnings

EMPOV:

Things with Bella have been going pretty good. We don't do anything more than kiss, but that's fine by me. I find myself staring at her all of the time. Mostly in awe, I think.

Cullen finally gave up on her and moved his sights on to Tanya. Apparently she goes for the geeky good-looking guys. Who'd have thunk it? I actually started hanging out with him.

Bella had some shit to do with Alice, so we decided to swing by the Cullen house for a bit. I actually looked forward to seeing Esme. She's like the mom I never had. Yeah, I have a mom, but she's an uber bitch. Seriously.

When I got there, everything seemed so musical. I guess that's the way to put it. Esme greeted us at the door.

"Oh. Hey guys! I was just going out to grab something to make for dinner, will you be joining us?" Her smile was just... comforting.

"Sure, Mrs. Cullen." I flashed the dimples.

She sighed. "Please, Esme. You know that. Stop calling me Mrs. Cullen. It's so.. formal." She giggled. "Edward is in the music room, and Alice is upstairs waiting on you, Bella. Good luck."

I snickered and Bella slapped my arm.

"Ow, babe. What's that for?" I rubbed my arm, still laughing.

"You're the one who insisted I be the victim for her next makeover project." She narrowed her eyes at me.

Bella sauntered off to Alice's room and I padded off to the music room.

"Gay!" I yelled over to Cullen who was playing on the piano.

"It's not gay, you jackass. Just because it isn't thrashing guitars and screaming unintelligible words doesn't mean it doesn't qualify as music." He laughed.

"You need to be less of a girl and more of a dude. Seriously, have you checked for your balls, lately?"

He rolled his eyes. Then, I noticed, Cullen didn't look all emo-ish.

"What's with the new look, man?" I had to know.

He paused and sighed, turning to me. "It's Tanya's idea. She's into the whole preppy thing, I guess. Hell if I know. So, what kind of torture is my sister putting your girlfriend through?" He raised an eyebrow.

"If I have any luck, she's really up there getting all hot and heavy with her, waiting on me to join in." I winked.

"That's just fuckin' gross, man. That's my sister." He wrinkled his nose. Definitely gay.

We sat around and bullshitted for a little while and Jasper showed up. Apparently, Alice gave up her lesbian ways when she realized that Jasper was her supposed "soul mate" or some shit.

"What up fuckers?" His vocabulary was so distinguished.

"Not much nut hugger. Just getting ready to go shoot some hoops with Cullen. Apparently your girlfriend is up there experimenting with Bella."

His eyes almost bulged out of his head. "They're wha?" He couldn't even form a coherent sentence.

"Yeah, I wish, right? She's giving her a makeover. You might be able to turn her straight again, but she must feel the need to have her hands all over MY woman. Dude, you're seriously not hitting that right or something." I joked.

Apparently he felt the need to defend himself. "We just got back together yesterday. What the fuck, man?"

Cullen was blocking us out. Seriously, he was plugging his ears like a two year old screaming "I can't hear you." What the shit?

JPOV:

Alice apparently decided that she no longer wanted to eat pussy and decided that I had always had her heart. Who was I kidding? I still loved her. She was my first love. Of course, I still have a soft spot in my heart for Bella. She's one of the best things in my life. I'll never let Emmett know how I still feel, but it's there.

I came over, because Alice insisted I be here to judge something she was inventing. Whatever in the fuck that means.

After talkin' shit with Emmett and Cullen, we went out back and shot some basketball for awhile. We mostly made fun of Cullen, because he did some leg kick thing when he shot the ball.

"Seriously, man. How did you land Tanya Denali, again? Because, I know it wasn't your ever impressive basketball skills." Emmett joked.

"Apparently she likes the smart ones." He smirked.

I had to join in on this. "Well, with that big ass brain of yours, you'd think you could judge distances a little better, and realize that kicking your fucking leg out when you shoot will not, in fact, increase your odds of making the basket."

Emmett and I were laughing our asses off, but Cullen, not so much.

"Shut up. Seriously. It's getting old." He growled.

"Yeah, like your game. Seriously, you may want to just sit down before you get hurt or something." Emmett was howling in laughter.

We were just about to continue cracking on Cullen, because now, it was our favorite past time, when Alice came running out the back door practically bouncing. She was too fucking cute.

She ran up and kissed me on the cheek. "You guys ready to see the new and improved Bella?" She was all kinds of excited.

We all trudged inside and sat on the couch. "Well?" Cullen was a bitch. Quit being so pushy, asshole.

Alice rolled her eyes. "Quit being such a girl. Shit. Learn some patience." I knew I loved her for some reason. She practically knows what I'm going to say before I can say it.

"Drum roll, please." She was all smiles and the three of us starting patting our legs rapidly for dramatic effect.

Then, I saw a killer set of legs followed by some crazy curves stuffed into a mini skirt and a tight v-neck sweater, a perfectly painted face, and hair that swam down her back for days. Bella. Not just any Bella, but fuckin' hot as hell Bella.

I tried not to stare and I noticed that Emmett's eyes were pretty much bulging out of the sockets and Edward looked like he may start drooling at any moment.

"Get your tongue back in your fucking head." Emmett growled at Cullen without taking his eyes off of Bella.

"Well, what do you guys think?" Bella was still so shy, yet, still so sexy.

Alice was slapping me in the back of the head. "What do you think, Jazz? She's beautiful, isn't she?"

I just nodded and Bella blushed.

EMPOV:

Holy fucking balls. I can't believe the chick standing in front of me. She came over in jeans and a hoodie, and now she looks like she stepped out of an Abercromibe catalog.

I quickly stood up after clearing my thoughts of all of the dirty things I wanted to do her right then and there, most of them not suitable for the viewing audience that we had.

"You. Uhm. Wow." Was I all managed to spit out.

She blushed and kissed me on the lips, sending fire straight to my dick. "You want to go to your house?" Fuck, she didn't have to ask me twice.

Before I could sweep her out Alice stopped us, pouting. "But, you can't go, yet. I wanted to take her by the mall and watch all of the boys squirm that know they can't have her, because you'll rip their throats out."

I laughed a little. "She wants to go. I can't deny her that."

"Fine. But, we'll just go through this over again before school tomorrow." Alice glared at Bella.

Bella smiled. "Sure thing. Be at my house early."

With that, we were out of the house and on our way to mine.

When we got to my house, Bella was looking so hot. I seriously wanted to rip her clothes off where she stood. But, she was still a virgin, and I respected that.

Before I could even do much more than close the door, Bella was all up on this shit. Hell yes.

She wrapped her arms around my neck as I wrapped mine around her waist. She bit her lip in that sexy, yet, innocent way, and it sent my head spinning. I didn't even have to go in for the kiss, because I found her nearly attacking me with urgency. She was gently nibbling on my bottom lip and I felt my dick getting hard at the way she was going about it.

She broke the kiss and looked up at me, her eyes glazed over with lust. "I think we should go down to your room."

I must have looked like I was special needs victim, because all I could do was look at her and nod, my mouth gaping open.

We walked downstairs to my room where the lights were off, but there was just enough trickling through the window to create the mood.

Bella dragged me over to the bed, practically ripping my clothes off of my body.

"Okay. Who are you, and what did you do with my girlfriend?" I laughed.

"Oh, she's still here, but she asked me to fill in for her." She smirked.

With that, I lifted her up to wrap her legs around me as I carried us over to the bed. I knew it was going to happen, and I really was trying to make it as romantic as humanly possible. She wasn't allowing it.

"Fuck me, Emmett. Right here. Right now." I think my eyes were seriously going to pop out of my head. Seriously!

"Uh. Bella. I. Uh." Was all I could manage to make out, because she now had her hand firmly on my dick, rubbing just enough to kill me.

I lowered her on the bed, taking in her body and all of it's curves. Now, I just had to get her out of those clothes.

I hovered over her, shaking the whole time. It was like it was my first time all over again. Part of my anxiety was the fact that it was Bella, and the other was that she was a virgin. Love washed over me as I realized what we were about to do.

Bella started to lift her shirt off of her head, but I stopped her. "I'll do that. You just relax." She bit her lip. Fucking hot.

I slowly undressed her. I gently took her shoot off and then her skirt. She was left laying in her sexy black lace underwear set. Her breasts were perky and they were just calling my name.

She leaned up and finished undressing me. I was just in my boxers now. My erection growing more and more that I looked at her.

I kissed her gently on her lips, working my way to her ear, her neck, her collarbone and stopped at the peak of her breasts. "Are you sure, baby? I mean, about wanting to go all the way with this? We can wait." My words were shaky. I was nervous as fuck.

"Yes. Please." She moaned. I took down the straps of her bra and pulled her breasts out just enough for me to play a little. I lapped my tongue around her erect nipples and she bucked under me in pleasure. Fucking hot. She knotted her hands in my hair, urging me to go on.

I ran my hand down to her wet center and started rubbing her over the fabric of her panties. She was fucking soaked. "God, Bella." I moaned. Her breaths were shaky.

I reached down and pulled her panties off and used my fingers to work her loose a little bit. She winced a little as I pushed my middle finger inside of her. As I worked for a little bit, she was moaning into my hair, as I was still sucking on her beautiful chest. I chanced it, and added another finger to the mix, using the palm of my hand to massage her throbbing clit.

"MMM." She moaned. That's what I'm talking about.

I knew she was ready. I was ready. It was the moment of truth. I positioned myself between her legs. My forehead was touching hers as my arms shook on either side of her. She was gently rubbing my face, looking into my eyes.

"This is going to hurt, Bella. I'm not going to lie to you." I planted sweet kisses on her forehead.

"I'm ready. Just be as easy as you can, okay?"

I smiled at her. "Okay, baby."

With that, I took my hand and placed my dick at her entrance. I paced myself, and pushed slightly into her. She winced as my erection was pulling her entrance.

"Do you want me to stop?" I asked her.

"No. I'm fine. Keep going." She was shaky. Still.

I pushed in a little farther and she gasped in pain. I feel like I'm doing something really fucking wrong here. Like I'm torturing her.

Finally, I knew I was close enough to the hymen, and I pushed in deeper. She dug her nails into my back, and I just stayed there for a moment.

I looked down at her, and her eyes were welling with tears. I felt like an asshole.

"Hey. Hey, don't cry." I kissed her tears.

"Don't stop, Emmett. Please. I need this. I need to feel you moving inside of me." She whispered. Her voice was shaky with want and nerves.

I slowly moved in and out of her. Being careful not to push too fast or too hard. She started moaning as I thrust.

"Oh my God. Please. Faster." She moaned. Don't have to ask me twice.

I picked up the pace a little and I could feel her bucking her hips into me as I pushed into her. Wanting me to be deep inside of her, filling her with every inch that I had.

I lifted her legs up a little more and I filled her even further, causing her to gasp and clasp onto my back.

"Oh. God. I. God. GOD!" She yelled as I felt her walls clenching as I thrust into her, the whole time, never taking my eyes off of hers.

"Come for me, Bella. Look me in the eyes and come for me. Please." I pleaded with her.

I snaked my hand down in between us and circled her clit with my thumb to help her out. She nearly exploded all over me, causing me to follow shortly after her.

I looked at her, and she giggled and blushed. It was actually pretty fucking cute, if you ask me.

She looked... I dunno, like she was glowing. I kissed her forehead, sweaty from all of the body heat. I didn't give a shit. I gave her what she wanted. She gave me her. Her whole self. The most important thing that she had.

I pulled out of her and went to lay next to her and she went to sit up. She looked down between her legs and passed out.

Blood. She was always queasy when she saw it.

Hell, I was about to pass the fuck out. It was alot. I don't think this shit is even normal.


	10. The Curious Case of Carlisle Cullen

EPOV:

Okay. I knew she was a virgin, but what the fucking fuck? She was gushing blood like Old Faithful. This shit was not cool.

I rattled my brain trying to think of what to do. I couldn't take her to Charlie's, because he'd rip my dick off and make me eat it. I couldn't just stay here and hope she dries up. What if she bled to death?

Normally, I would be more worried about the expensive sheets than a girl, but this was my Bella. She was hurt, and it was all my fault.

I picked up the phone and dialed away.

"Hello?"

"Carlisle, it's Emmett. I need you to see Bella right away." I stammered.

"What happened, is she okay?" His voice was steady and calm.

"I don't know. I'll explain everything once you take a look at her. Should I bring her there?"

"Yes. That would be for the best. I'll be up in my office setting things up."

We hung our phones up and I quickly got dressed and grabbed a t-shirt and boxers and dressed Bella. Her body laid limp and pale. I'm such a douche. My dick probably killed her.

I wrapped her up in a blanket and drove over to the Cullen's house, as fast as my jeep would push.

I barely stopped and turned off the ignition before I ran around and pulled Bella out of the backseat, wrapped up like a Bella Burrito. I carried her bridal style all the way into the house. Alice ran out crying as she saw Bella's lifeless body.

"What did you do to her, Emmett?" She was sobbing. Now I was getting teary eyed. Fuck me.

"I don't know. She started hemmorhaging or something and freaked out and she passed out. So, I called your dad." I stumbled on my words.

Esme came in and ordered me upstairs, putting a cold washcloth on Bella's face.

Edward appeared out of nowhere, brooding as fucking usual. "She smells like blood and sex. What did you do, fuck her to death?"

"Fuck you, man." I snarled.

"Nope. I don't want to die." He chuckled. Fucking asshole.

I ran Bella up the stairs to Carlisle's office and he shooed me away. "You should go downstairs and wait. I don't know how comfortable she'd be with you standing here watching me examine her." He was still calm and collected.

After an hour or so, Carlisle came downstairs to talk to me. He put his hand on my shoulder and sighed.

"How is she? Is she okay? Oh my God. Is she dead?" I was bombarding him with questions.

He laughed a little. "Perhaps you and I should talk alone."

"No way. We're all friends here. They're just as concerned as I am."

He chuckled a little. "Well. The reason Bella was bleeding so badly, was because she was ripped just a bit in her.. entrance. It wasn't a major issue, but it was enough to cause her to bleed profusely."

Edward stepped in. "What do you mean, her entra... OH!" His face turned beet red.

"Emmett. You need to tell me what she was doing when she started bleeding." He was very serious.

"Uhm. We were gettin' it on, Doc." I smiled.

He laughed. "Well, so you caused it, then?"

"I guess so. I mean, she was fine most of the time." I remembered.

"Not to be disgusting, and strictly speaking from a professional standpoint, but Emmett, you would have to be majorly.. equipped to pull that kind of damage on somebody."

Alice spit out whatever she was drinking and started choking. "That's hilarious." She laughed in between coughs.

I beamed. I mean, I could feel my cheeks stretching. That's right, Cullen. Eat your fucking heart out. I'm packing a weapon of mass destruction in these jeans.

After we all recovered from hearing about how big my wang is, Dr. Cullen spoke up.

"I would have to advise you from any sexual activity for awhile. Maybe you should stick with oral sex or heavy petting. Dry humping."

"Dad!" Edward whined.

"What is it Edward? Are you jealous? I mean, you could use a sex life of your own. Wouldn't kill you to get in a girl's pants. Jesus, son. People are talking. They think you're gay." Carlisle was popping open a beer.

I couldn't control my laughter. Alice was cracking up, too.

"I mean, your sister got more.. women than you did. And that's just sad." He was now officially my hero.

We all sat around while Edward got bashed continuously about being gay. Of course, he wasn't, but we like to think of him that way.

Bella stayed sedated through the night. I slept on the Cullen's couch.

I was woken up by Jasper's fuckin' junk in my face. Fucker tea bagged me. Edward laughed hysterically.

"You sick asshole. Why don't you go do that shit to Cullen?" I barked, wiping my face furiously.

"Ah. He'd like it too much. I don't want him trying to get all up in my butthole." He laughed.

"Enough with the gay bashing." Edward whined.

"Sorry to offend your people. I'll bake you a rainbow cake as an apology." Jasper laughed.

Then my new hero, Carlisle came downstairs in his scrubs and went to the refrigerator.

He was too damn young looking to be a doctor. I mean, seriously.

"Hey doc, can I ask you something?" I yelled into the kitchen.

"Sure." He smiled.

"You're like, what, older. Why do you look so young? I mean. You have to be like 45." I quizzed.

He laughed. "Oh. That. Yeah, I have the same disease as Benjamin Button."

Jasper and I howled in laughter. Edward didn't laugh so much. What's his fucking deal?

"Maybe you guys should make a movie on me. The Curious Case of Carlisle Cullen. The never aging doctor."

This guy was the shit.

"Okay, if you could be a superhero or something, what would you be?" I asked.

He paused for a moment. "I don't know. I think being a vampire would be pretty cool. You could kill people who piss you off on a constant basis and nobody could stop you." Fuckin' awesome!

"Nice! But, what kind of super powers would you have?"

"I don't know. I guess, compassion or something." He laughed.

"Compassion?" Cullen laughed. "Oh yeah, 'Hey fear my compassion.' You can't do shit with compassion, dad. You gonna' talk your victims to death?"

I actually laughed at that.

Carlisle laughed. "See you boys later."

"Thanks, doc. For helping Bella last night." I smiled warmly at him.

"Not a problem. You're lucky I'm so 'compassionate' or I would've turned you away." He chuckled as he walked out the door.

Bella felt sore for the better part of the week. I felt like a major dick, which makes me happy and sad at the same time.

I was at her beck and call. If she told me to jump, I'd say, "off of what?" That's how committed to this girl I am.

"Emmett, really. I am going to be fine. Go with Jasper to the mall. I don't need you to babysit me, I swear." She kissed my cheek.

"I know." I sighed. I just, I want you to be comfortable. It's all my fault that you're all sore and stuff."

She giggled. "It's not that I didn't like it. Hell, I loved it. You didn't know that you were going to have that effect on me."

"Yeah, I tore that shit up." I laughed. I could literally say that. I was king.

I kissed her on the forehead and grabbed my keys and left for the mall with Jasper.

When I picked Jasper up, Rosalie was standing on the porch looking fuckin' fantabulous. Shit. I think Cullen and his extreme gayness is rubbing off on me.

"Care to give me a ride? I want to stop by some of the stores." She gave me wink.

"Uh. Yeah, whatever. But, I don't think they let pets in the stores." I laughed. She smacked the shit out of the back of my head.

Once we got there, we immediately went to the food court to pig out. They had the best subs ever.

Jasper got up to go to the bathroom and Rose's hand found it's way to my dick. What the hell?

"You know, I've missed this." She purred.

I swallowed hard. Normally I would have continued on, but I loved Bella.

"Hands off the goods lady."

"You should let me make everything all better for you, Emmy. I wouldn't break as easily as the plain girl." She hissed in my ear.

"That's because you're loose. It's like throwing a hot dog down a hallway, Rose. Give up."

"That's a little harsh, Emmett. You must've thought it was pretty good to keep fucking me repeatedly."

I was now starting to just get flat out pissed.

"Look, hooker. You're kind of a disgusting skank, right now. I'd appreciate it if you would take your hands off of my cock, and scoot away from me, before you find yourself walking home." I snapped. "And I heard we're having thunderstorms, so good luck with that shit." I grabbed her hand off of me and flung it back to her.

She jumped on me kissing me and I tried to push her off of me when Jasper walked up.

"What the fuck?" He yelled.


	11. Tunnel Vision

EMPOV:

I didn't know what to say when Jasper came out of the bathroom and caught his hookerish sister mauling my face with her lips of poison.

"Dude, a little help here?" I yelled.

He quickly jumped over and pulled Rosalie from my lap and my ultimate doom with Bella.

"You know you still want me, Emmett. Why are you fighting this?" She screamed.

"That's enough, Rosalie. Why are you doing this? I mean, seriously, does everything have to be about you? Because, that's just pure bullshit. You can't stand that I'm actually happy. I'm happy and it's not with you. Suck it up, hooker." I sneered.

She got up and stormed away.

"What the hell was that shit about, man?" Jasper looked more confused than ever.

I paused for a moment. "I honestly have no idea. I was just sitting here and she started gropin' on my junk. I swear to God I didn't provoke any of it. The hell?"

He sighed and plopped down in the chair next to me. "I think I know why she's doing this. I'm not positive, but I think I know why."

"Well. I don't have all fucking day here. I was practically raped by your sister in the food court, in front of God and everybody else." I mused.

"She dumped James as soon as she heard you and Bella were getting serious. Well, more or less, I told her how bangin' Bella looked the other night when Alice made her over."

"That doesn't make any- What the hell? Why would it matter to you if Bella looked 'bangin'?" I used air quotes.

He laughed. "I'm still a man. I do look. You can't tell me that you've never checked Alice out. I mean, seriously."

I laughed at that. "Dude, I can never look at her the same way ever again. I'm honestly shocked that you took her back. I mean, you were seriously have issues."

"She told me that she wanted to give it a try with me, again. Obviously, I wasn't taken at the moment." He gave a half-hearted smile. I knew what he was getting at.

"Man. I know that you still care about Bella. Hell, I know you probably love her in a way that I might not. But, I'm not lying when I say that I'd spend every moment of the rest of my life trying to love her in every way possible." I smiled.

Jazz responded with his own toothy grin. "That's some real deep ass shit, dude. But, I think Cullen has rubbed off on you. You're turning into a girl."

I threw a handful of chips at him and we hopped up to get some shopping done.

I was on a mission. Bella's stereo in her truck was seriously an antique by now. Plus, she was due for some new movies and other stuff.

We stopped off by Radio Shack to look for a c.d. player. You'd think they'd have car stereos, I mean it's called Radio Shack. Why did they not have what I was looking for?

Jasper called after me from a store across the way. It was a store specializing mainly in car electronics. I browsed through the inventory and found the perfect one for her. While I was at it, I purchased an amp and speakers. Her truck might run like shit, but it's gonna' have the most bangin' system at the school, I guarantee that.

I checked out and waited in the hallway for Jasper to get out of the bathroom, again.

I was buying a Coke out of the machine when I felt a pair of hands over my eyes. "Guess who?" I jumped. It was a girl, but it wasn't Rose.

"Uhm. I honestly have no idea." I stammered.

She took her hands off of my eyes. "I'm a little insulted, Mr. McCarty." She purred.

I spun quickly to see Victoria. The girl I pretty much stood up before there was a chance of us getting to know each other.

"Oh. Uh. Hi. Victoria?" I tried to play off like I remembered her, but it came out more as a question.

"I was wondering when I might run into you, again." She was trying to be seductive, but her ugly red hair was thankfully distracting me.

"Oh. Yeah. Well, I've been seeing another girl, so..." I trailed off.

As Jasper came out of the bathroom, Victoria's hand connected to my face. Fucking great.

"What the hell, bitch?" I yelled, rubbing my face.

"I should have known better. Guys like you make me fucking sick. What. Did you think I was going to be an easy piece of ass, Emmett?" She scolded.

I swear to God, today was seriously not my day. I should've just stayed home with Bella, like I planned on doing in the first place.

"I never even tried to get in your pants. I met you like half of a time, and YOU asked ME for my number. I gave it to you, because I was single, and then you called me insisting that we go on a date. You never called me back after that, which isn't my problem, but is okay with me, because I am with Bella." I fumed now.

Jasper intervened. "Look, I think we need to leave and find Rose before she tries to walk home."

Thank God!

She huffed and stomped away.

"What the hell man? It's like chicks have fucking tunnel vision with me today. It's like, God is trying to destroy me or some shit." I was nearly dazed.

Jasper laughed. "You're having some pretty shitty luck today. But, tomorrow, we play ball." I smiled. Baseball. Hell yes.

~*~

We pretty much agreed that this wasn't going to be mentioned to Bella for now, and that yesterday's nonsense at the mall was just unnecessary news.

I drove out to the clearing with Bella and everybody else was already there. Edward, Jasper, Alice, Rosalie, Esme and my new hero, Carlisle were waiting on us.

Bella wasn't much of a ball player, but she kind of needed to step in and help out. She took the catcher's position. She couldn't really throw, and she couldn't really run without tripping over her own feet. She could catch. That much I was sure of.

Rosalie kept giving Bella death stares the whole game. We all took turns up at the plate, all but Bella. Rose batted first, and Edward caught it.

Carlisle batted and I caught him out. Then, Jasper went up to plate and did some kick ass bat tricks. Again. Cool Mother Fucker. He ended up getting a homer because Edward and I collided when we both went for the ball.

Esme opted out of batting, umpiring the game, because she thinks we cheat.

Rose went up to bat again. She knocked it pretty far. Too far for Edward or myself to get to it. I managed to get to the ball and launched it up to Bella at home plate. Rose rounded the bases with lightning speed. Bella caught the ball and crouched down ready to tag her out. Instead of sliding, though, Rose plowed at her with full force. She knocked her out cold.

Instead of seeing if she was okay, Rose smiled and laughed while the rest of us ran to Bella's aid.

"Oh my God. Quit freaking out. She probably just got the wind knocked out of her. I cannot believe you're obsessing over this girl. She has no right to be here anyway." She said evilly.

Before I could say anything, Alice was on Rose's back punching and screaming. "You fucking bitch. Get over your jealousy issues. Grow the hell up."

"Let go of me you fucking smurf." Rose was uneventfully swatting behind her.

"Why don't you go back down to the pits of hell where you belong, Satan." Alice was taking the palm of her hand and beating the shit out of Rose's back.

Nobody bothered to step in and stop them. Alice jumped off of Rosalie's back. "If you wanna' pick on somebody, I'm right here. I'm tiny but I'll absolutely beat the shit out of you." Alice turned her ball cap around.

"Look, midget, I'm not going to fight you. It's Bella I want." Rose sneered.

"You must be afraid." Alice smirked.

Rose snapped, tackling Alice to the ground and I ran over to help her, but Cullen had an evil grin on his face. "You haven't seen anything yet. Let Alice handle this."

What the hell did that mean?

I soon figured it out. Alice was small enough to maneuver her way out from underneath Rosalie and did like one of those kicks from 300 into Rosalie's chest. I was waiting for her to yell "This is Sparta" or something to the equivalent, but she didn't. Instead, she walked over to Rosalie and starting way-laying her face. It was fuckin' awesome.

Finally Cullen went and pulled his sister off of Rose, who was a bloody mess. I saw Jasper pay Cullen 10 bucks. "I told you."

"Man, I thought she had her. I really did." Jasper shook his head.

Hell, I was shocked. Rose was usually one bad bitch. In all of the drama, we had all forgotten about Bella. Well, all of us except for Carlisle and Esme, who were tending to her.

I felt like a major asshole. How did I forget about my own girlfriend/best friend. Oh. That's right. A super bad-ass fight was going on between two girls. Exactly.

"Uhm. My head." Bella whined.

"Hey. Bella. I want you to look at me and tell me how many fingers I'm holding up. He held up three fingers and Bella answered easily.

"I can see fine. I can breathe fine. I don't smell or taste blood. My hip is sore, my back is sore, and I may have a knot on the back of my head. What I don't know is why Rosalie forgot that we weren't playing tackle football." Bella winced as she went to stand up.

I pulled her up in a tight hug, thankful that she was awake. "Emmett. Can't. Breathe." She laughed.

Alice came over to Bella, her fists bloody from Rose's face. "Oh my god. Alice, what happened to your hands?" Bella was in shock.

"I kicked the shit out of Rose for you." She smiled.

Bella looked horrified. "Why would you do that?"

"Because, she made if very plain that she doesn't like you, and you weren't conscious so I helped you out. You can get her when you recover." Alice beamed.

"Good luck with that, plain girl." Rose sneered. Why didn't she fuckin' leave, yet?

The baseball game was a bust. I have realized that everybody is crazy, and I am in the Twilight Zone. I made a little mental note never to piss Alice off. She was crazy. Looked like if she really wanted to, she could rip my head off and throw it into a fire.

"Bella. I need to tell you something." I shied.

She held an icepack to her head. "Okay, Em. What is it?" She winced as she twisted to look at me.

"Rose came on to me at the mall. Then Victoria was there and she tried to come on to me." I was quickly falling over my words.

Bella laughed. "You didn't do anything, right?"

I shook my head no.

"Okay then. I trust you." She paused. "Could you rub my shoulders for me? They're really tense."

I swallowed hard. I was afraid of hurting her. "Okay, but if I'm hurting you. Please, let me know."

She smiled and turned around slowly to let me rub her shoulders, but not before taking off her t-shirt, only leaving her wife beater on in it's place.

I blew into my hands and rubbed them together to warm them up. As I started to gently rub her shoulders, she started moaning softly. I started getting hard.

My intentions were nowhere near sex. I hadn't really thought that way since she got hurt.

As I start rubbing her shoulders, she leaned back onto my chest. I quickly realized she didn't have a bra on. Excellent.

My breathing started to pick up, because I was now getting hornier by the second.

She must've been getting wound up too, because her breath hitched when she leaned back on me.

"It feels really good, Emmett." She purred. Her voice was low and thick with lust. Which, is a total turn on.

"Does it baby?" I smiled into her hair. "If anything else hurts, tell me so I can rub it." I was the man.

I could feel her shoulders shaking from chuckling. Then, she took my hands off of her shoulders. She slid one hand down her sleep pants and one hand up under her wife beater. Holy God!

"I hurt here, too." She moaned as she put my hand on her crotch.

"I guess I should try to rub it. See if it feels any better." I whispered.

She bit her lip and I started working my magic. She was now on her knees on the couch, when she got in that position, I'm not really sure. I found myself on mine still at my position behind her. As I kissed her shoulders and neck, my left hand was playing with her chest while my other worked it's magic down below. She was riding my fucking hand. How hot is that shit? Never knew she had it in her.

"It still hurts, Emmett." She purred.

I smiled. "Maybe I should kiss it and make it better." I teased.

My new position was in between Bella's legs. We couldn't have sex, but Dr. Awesome said that we could do oral.

I had her pants and panties off in like no time, and pushed her legs out wide. I didn't waste any time with formal introductions. I just buried my face into her. It was good, too.

I licked from bottom to top, left to right, and all the while her juices were pooling on my tongue. I savored every drop like it was the last thing to drink on earth. She tasted... sweet. It was good.

I tempted to place my hands on her chest, but I deterred that option to hold her legs open as far as I could push them, causing her to writhe in pleasure against my face.

If you didn't already know this much about me, I'm a nasty mother fucker, and the dirtier things are, the better. I wanted her all over my face. I wanted to make her cum in my mouth. Eating pussy is kind of my hobby.

It killed me knowing that I couldn't even stick my fingers in her. She was just so wet, and I knew she had to be tight, begging for it. But, I didn't want to chance hurting her.

"Oh, God. Baby, I'm gonna'..." She started.

I moved my tongue faster, in and out of her entrance and flicking her clit, which was like really swollen.

"You're gonna' what?" I purred, never taking my eyes off the prize.

"You're gonna' make me. Oh god. I. I , God. Please." She begged.

"You want to come, babe?" I teased.

She shook her head yes and bit her lip. How could I deny the lip bite? It was too cute.

So, I went for the kill. I moved my mouth and my tongue and kissed and licked every inch of her to lick. She bucked against my face, and I knew she was close. Then. Sweet, sweet victory. I drank that shit up like it was water and I was in the desert. Seriously.

She wasn't blushing, but she was red in the cheeks from being so hot. Her body spent from her orgasm. I knew she was tired, and I owed her this much. I would be good. For now.


	12. Every Mile A Memory

EMPOV:

Well, things have been going very well with Bella and myself. The sex was fucking amazing. I couldn't keep my hands off of her, and I couldn't keep her out of my mind. She was my perfection.

We continued dating through to our graduation. Every moment with her, I cherished it. I thrived on it. I needed it like I needed air.

Now, Bella was going on to Ohio State, with Jasper. They had both gotten accepted on full scholarships. We all three had applied, but my football career guided me elsewhere. I got a full ride to USC. I will admit, being a die hard Buckeye fan, I was hesitant, but USC was a grade A school.

Here we are. Bella and myself. Standing in her practically empty room. She and Jasper will be leaving soon to go off to Columbus. I could practically feel my heart ripping out of my chest.

"Do you really have to practically move across the country, Bella?" I whined.

She laughed as she threw on her Ohio State hoodie. "Yep. It's going to be good for me. You know how much I want to go there, Em. Besides, Jasper will be there to keep a close eye on me, just in case any of those ravenous college boys try to get their claws into me." She winked.

I tried to be happy for her. I really did. I mean, I was happy as a pig in shit for Jasper. He told me he dreamed about Ohio State since he was a kid. Now he got to fulfill his dream there.

I will never forget the day we all three decided to apply.

"I'm never going to get in to OSU. I'm sure they'll look right over me." Bella pouted.

I gave her a wink and a nudge. "No way. You're my best friend. If they take me they have to take you, too. That's part of the deal."

She laughed. "Jasper, what do you think your chances are?"

He grinned from ear to ear. "100%. I bleed Scarlett and Gray, baby!"

We all laughed.

Thinking back from that moment, I see the irony. I told Bella that I would never go without her, but she wasn't making the same jump for me.

I helped carry the last of her things out to the U-Haul and wrapped my arms around her.

"I love you, teddy bear." She sniffled into my chest. I squeezed her tighter.

"I love you, too babe." I said into her hair. I inhaled deeply through my nose. I wanted to remember her scent, her touch, her face every moment she was away from me.

She climbed into the front of the truck that Jasper's dad had bought him for graduation. "I'll email you everyday. I'll call you every Sunday." She smiled, fighting back tears.

I was crying. I was literally crying. "Don't go, Bella. Please. I can't survive without you. I need you. Please don't leave me." I was now bawling.

She pulled my head down and kissed my forehead. "I can't, babe. I'm sorry. I love you." Her eyes were dripping tears.

I nodded my head and stepped back from the truck. They started to pull away. "I love you, Bella. Sunday." I reminded her.

It's been forever since I've seen my whole world, Bella. We emailed everyday, chatted on MSN, and like she agreed, she called me every Sunday.

She and Jasper started renting a place just off of campus, and both of them had taken jobs to pay for rent. Bella was working at a bookstore, which was perfect for her. Jasper was a music major, and his professor hooked him up with a job playing with his cover band on the weekends and he did guitar lessons through the week. Both of their incomes combined was more than enough to pay their way.

Alice and Edward made their way to Ohio a few times to see them. I was always so busy with football and practices that I couldn't make my way out there.

College, for me, was going great. Rosalie was just a few miles away, attending a fashion institute with Alice, and Edward was going to UCLA for medical school.

Unfortunately for Alice, she and Jasper broke it off a couple of weeks back, because she said that the strain of a long distance relationship was too much to handle. To be honest, I started to believe the same thing.

I would go to college parties and there would be beautiful women everywhere. I always had to be good, because I knew my Bella was being faithful to me.

Here it is, Thanksgiving, and Jasper and Bella will be coming home for the week. I was excited. I've planned a special evening for just the two of us.

I was going to ask her to marry me.

~*~

I went to the airport and saw them. Jasper and Bella. When she saw me her face lit up my entire world.

She threw her stuff down and ran the short distance and jumped into my grasp, kissing me repeatedly.

"I've missed you so much, Emmett. Oh my God. I loved you." She was crying.

I didn't want to let her down, afraid that if I did, she may leave again.

Jasper walked up to me. "What? No hug and kiss for me? I'm crushed." He mocked.

"I'll save that for later, baby." I laughed.

"You're just weird." He chuckled.

We made our way to my jeep and I immediately bombarded Bella with a20 questions.

"So, how does it feel to be home?"

She smiled. "It's... nice! Although, in Ohio, it doesn't rain half as much."

I felt my heart tug a little. Fucking Ohio.

"That's good. How are you liking your living arrangements?" I questioned.

She laughed. "I think that Jasper is completely helpless. I'm not sure he ever learned how to do anything for himself while he was growing up."

Jasper laughed. "Whatever, Bells. I just like the way you cook better than I do. You can't blame me for that."

I laughed. Bella cocked an eyebrow. "And cleaning up for you? Does that have anything to do with cooking?"

I slammed my breaks and braced Bella. "You are not his fucking maid, Bella." I scowled.

"Chill out, Emmett. I was only joking. He does a fine job of cleaning up after himself. I was only referring to this party we had a couple of weekends back." She said plainly.

"What party?" I quizzed.

She had a look of shock on her face. "Oh, Jasper decided that he wanted to meet some girls, so HE had a party at the house. It was pretty awesome, too. He was in such bad shape the next day, that I felt bad and cleaned up most of the mess." She winked at him.

I was about to punch Jasper in the fucking throat. What a cock smooch.

~*~

The rest of the drive was pretty uneventful. More questions about how awesome their time together has been, and me wallowing in self pity that I couldn't be a part of it.

It didn't matter, because I was going to ask Bella to marry me, tonight. It was going to be perfect.

After we all ate and everybody sat around talking for awhile I leaned over to Bella.

"Let's go somewhere for awhile." I whispered.

She bit her lip, thinking that I wanted to fuck, which wasn't necessarily untrue, but that wasn't my sole intention.

"If you will excuse us, Bella and I are going to get some fresh air." I took Bella's hand and we started walking.

"Uhm. Emmett. Where are we going?" She looked around.

"The park." I stated.

She laughed. "We're a little too old for the park, Emmett."

I smiled at her. "Hell no we're not! I'm never too old for the monkey bars."

That's how I got the name 'Monkey Man' from Rosalie. I tried to impress her in junior high was hanging upside down on the monkey bars, but my leg somehow gave out and I pretty much fell on my head.

She giggled. "You would think that scar right there at your hairline would prove otherwise."

We made it to the swings. I knew it had to be now or never.

She sat down and I pushed her lightly and began to start up the conversation.

"Do you remember when we were little, we would come here and wait for our dads to get done fishing?"

She laughed. "Mhmm."

I sighed. "Do you remember when those mean kids were picking on you, and I jumped in to save the day?"

She laughed. I continued.

"Do you remember what I told you?"

She smiled. "You told me that you were going to marry me someday, and that nobody was ever going to be mean to me again, not without answering to you." She laughed. "God, we were so young. I can't believe you told me that you wanted to marry me someday. I thought you were ridiculous, and that you had cooties."

I laughed a little. I walked around to the front of her and dropped down to one knee.

I pulled the ring out of my pocket and proceeded.

"Isabella Marie Swan, I meant every word I said when I told you that all those years ago."

Her eyes were welling up. I grabbed her hand and rubbed gently over the top.

"I swear to God, Bella. If you promise to marry me, I'll spend every waking moment of my life trying to make you happy." I choked out. I could feel the tears building up.

"The sun rises and sets with you, Bella. I need you like I need water, like I need air. I've already talked to your dad, and he gave me his blessing. All I need is for you to tell me that you want to spend the rest of your life, letting me make you happy."

I looked up at her, her eyes full of tears. Tears that I couldn't decipher were happy or sad. I was hoping for happy.

"Okay." She sobbed. I slipped the ring on her finger and whispered in her ear.

"It says 'More Than My Own Life' on the inside. That's how much I love you, Bella. I love you more than my own life." She wrapped her arms around me and sobbed into my chest.

I looked up and gave a thumbs up to Alice and Edward who were my partners in crime through this whole thing. Then, I heard claps and catcalls from the tree line.

She laughed. "I think we have an audience, sweetie."

"I don't care. I want everybody to know just how much I love you." I laughed, stood up and yelled.

"SHE SAID YES!"

Everybody came rushing over congratulating us. I felt like a million bucks.

With the passing of Thanksgiving, my life and my best friends were going back to Ohio. I didn't have to wait too long to see them again, because Christmas was coming up, soon.

"I can't wait to see you, Emmett. I see this stupid ring and it makes me realize how truly alone I am here without you." She said on the phone.

I sighed. "Then leave that damned place and come be with me."

She laughed. "You know I can't do that. This is where I have to be right now." Her voice sounded sad.

"You'll never truly be alone, baby. You have me with you all of the time. I may not be there physically, but always know that I'm thinking about you every second that I'm away from you."

She was now crying. This long distance bullshit was getting to the both of us.

"I've got to go, Emmett. I have a ton to do for my Lit class tomorrow. I'll see you this weekend. I can't wait."

"I love you, Hells Bells." I said, a sinking feeling in my heart.

"And I love you, my teddy bear." She hung up.

~*~

Bella is beautiful. I was so glad the Cullens decided to throw their big Christmas bash. I was going to get fucking lit up tonight.

Jasper and Bella seemed to migrate together most of the evening. I guess they kind of felt out of the loop since they'd been gone for so long.

Somehow or another I got stuck with Rosalie for the better half of the night. It didn't help that I hadn't been laid in God knows how long, and she was wearing a sexy Mrs. Claus outfit with her tits halfway hanging out. I stared. Fuck yeah, I stared hard.

I looked over at Bella and her beauty was something different. She was glowing. Everybody would come by and congratulate her. She would look down at her ring and beam. Jasper never left her side. Alice eventually got him to dance with her, but she'd already fucked him over too many times for him to give her another chance.

Suddenly, I noticed that I was standing under the mistletoe and Rosalie was right beside me. Are you fucking serious right now?

Rose blushed and looked up to where my eyes were staring, blankly, wondering how I was going to get out of this mess.

Before I knew it, Rosalie was holding my face and kissing me. I mean, really kissing me. Out of a sexless response, I found my mouth working with hers, and my hands were wrapped around her waist, pulling her to me. Again, I say I hadn't been laid in like, forever.

The only time my attention was broken was when I heard glass shattering and realized the room was silent. I felt about 100 pairs of eyes staring at us.

I didn't realize Bella was standing in front of us and she was so mad she didn't even cry. Please, cry, yell, do something. I deserve it.

Instead, she looked up at me, her eyes were now teared up, and she pulled off my great-grandmother's ring, and threw it at me.

"You can fucking have her, Emmett." She growled.

Rosalie tried to step up and apologize, I think, but before she could get the first word out, Bella popped her in the mouth. "Keep your mouth shut you skanky whore."

"Bella, the mistletoe." I pointed up. I hoped that she would see that it was all done out of tradition.

"Kiss my fucking ass, Emmett. That's a bullshit excuse. Don't think I didn't notice how you stared at her all fucking night. You're such a douche bag. I can't believe I bought that whole 'I'll love you forever' bullshit. You're the king of sweet talking and I was just another crony who fell for your shit." She spat.

"Bella, wait." I stammered. It was too late. She grabbed Jasper, who was shaking his head at me, and ran out the door. Out of my life.

Edward and Alice shot me disapproving looks and even Rosalie looked like she kind of hated my guts. Fuck. My. Life.


	13. The Space Between

BPOV:

Emmett called, texted, or emailed me every waking moment he had. I ignored them all. Well, I ignored the phone calls and most of the texts.

He would write to me and apologize for what happened, and how sorry he was. It didn't matter. I saw the look of lust on his face and he was purely content in that moment with Rosalie.

I wanted so badly to blame her for what happened, and maybe she did concoct the whole thing, but he was the guiltier party here. He let it happen. Fuck tradition, he could've just walked away.

Of course, I threw myself into my studies and my job. I even picked up an extra class to take my mind off of him.

I would go home at night and see the picture of the two of us at prom. We were so happy.

Tonight was particularly hard. It is, what would have been, our two year anniversary. The only date I had planned for tonight was watching chick flicks and drowning my sorrows with Jack Daniels.

I had been drinking and crying for the last, I dunno, how many hours. I didn't care at all about anything.

Jasper came home from work and threw his keys down on the counter. He sat down next to me on the couch and took the bottle and swigged out of it.

"I should've called off tonight and kept you company, Bella."

I waved him off. "I don't need company. It's your stupid friend and whore of a sister that did this shit to me."

He sighed. "Look, I know what happened is fucked up. But, you need to understand that I am always here if you need a friend, Bella. I didn't forget about you, but you're forgetting about the rest of the fucking world. Life's hard, and it sucks, and just when you think you found the right person, it gets ripped away from you. I've had that shit happen twice now."

I don't know what came over me at that moment, but I was suddenly planted on Jasper's lap, straddling him, and kissing him fiercely.

He had his arms around me for a brief moment, rubbing his hands up and down my back, grabbing my ass and pulling me toward him. Then, he suddenly broke the kiss and pushed me back a little.

"Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. Bella, I am flattered that you are so turned on by me, but right now is not the time to do anything. It might seem right to do this now, but tomorrow you'll hate yourself and possibly me."

I sat back a little hurt. I decided I wasn't giving up. "I want you to make it all go away, Jasper. I want you to make me feel good again."

The look in his eyes was a mixture between confusion and sorrow. Confused as to whether to do it or not, and sorrow because he knew that I was in misery.

He pursed his lips. "Bella, I can't. This isn't the way to fix this. Drunken sex with your best friend isn't the way to fix it."

I leaned into him and bawled. I cried hard into his chest as he rubbed my hair and sighed. He planted small kisses on my head and reassured me that I was going to be fine.

EMPOV:

Yep. I'm drunk. I've pretty much been drunk every day since Bella left me. I try calling her everyday, I text her, and email her. Nothing I do seems to work.

I've tried talking to Jasper only to have him lecture me on how I suck as a friend and a person in general. He would reluctantly give me the scoop on the love of my life.

So, here I am. The night that was supposed to be our two year anniversary. I'm drowning my sorrows in Captain Morgan and seriously contemplating my death.

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK.

I got up to answer the door only to find Alice and Edward standing there with Rosa-bitch in tow.

"We're going out." Alice started rummaging through my shit.

"No we're not. I'm not going anywhere with that homewrecker." I pointed at Rose with my bottle.

She rolled her eyes. "Whatever, Emmett. I've apologized. I've begged and I've cried. Yes, I feel pretty much responsible for the demise of your relationship. God dammit, Emmett. If you love her so damn much, then why are you here instead of running after her?"

"Because." I spat. "She doesn't want me anymore. If it's going to make her happy... if my staying away from her is what will make her happy, then I will never be in the same place that she is." My eyes started to fill with tears.

"I just want to hear her voice. Do you know that I call her cell phone and am excited to hear her voicemail?" I huffed. "It's just so I can hear her voice. I've begged her and I've cried over her voice mails, but nothing works. She has made if very plain that she doesn't want me."

TEN YEARS LATER (You're reading this right)

EMPOV:

Our ten year high school reunion. I already knew what most of our graduating class was up to.

Alice was married to Jacob Black. They fell in love after she blew the engine out of her Porsche and he fixed it in no time.

Edward is a doctor now. He married Angela from our graduating class. They have a boy, Masen.

Then there's Rosalie. Well, I can tell you that she is as gorgeous as she ever was. She's got three boys, and I add that they are all rotten and hellions just like their dad, me.

Now, before you jump the gun, I made good on my vow never to be around or speak to Bella again. After that night I sobered up my ways of thinking. I stayed straight in my classes, and I ended up winning the Heisman trophy my senior of football. Luckily for me the Seattle Seahawks picked me up on a first round draft pick.

I won't lie and tell you that I don't think about her from time to time. I do. Everytime I hear a cheesy song on the radio or look through an old photo album, I think of her and smile.

You're probably wondering about Jasper and probably about Bella, too. I haven't talked to them. Hell, nobody has talked to them that I'm aware of. I think the only person who talks to any of them is Charlie. And that's because he can hunt her down if she goes anywhere.

From what I last heard, Jasper was a professor of music at Ohio State and Bella was a professor of Literature there. Also, I have heard that Bella had a baby. I'm not sure who the father is, but I'm betting that he or she is beautiful.

The reunion was getting ready to start and I was nervous. For one, I really wanted to see Jasper again and hear what he has to say about his new life as a professor. He's probably the coolest teacher of life.

The other part of me was anticipating Bella's arrival. Nobody has talked to her, not even Alice. I wanted to know that she was doing good with her life.

"You're waiting on Bella to get here, aren't you?" Rosalie fixed my tie.

"It's not like that anymore. I just want to know that she's doing good." I whined.

She smiled. "It's okay to miss her. I know that you miss her everyday. She was a big part of your life and I accept that. But you need to remember that you have a family. You have me, Jordan, Jayson, and Bryson to look after."

I kissed her. "Thank you, baby."

Then I heard Alice screech. "OH! My! GOD!" I snapped my head to see what she was yelling about and I saw her. Hell, I saw them.

"Bella! Jasper!" She looked like she had them in a death grip. She gave them kisses on the cheek. "You have to tell me all about... everything!"

I laughed, but it was short lived. Bella looked stunning in a midnight blue wrap dress. Her hair hung in loose curls. She looked gorgeous. Jasper looked all grown up. His hair was still a blonde mess, but it was still cool as hell. Of course, he came in some vintage suit, as usual.

"Well, Hells Bells." I practically yelled, not realizing that my excitement might have been a little too much.

"If it isn't Emmett Cullen. How are you? I heard you and Rose have three VERY rowdy little boys." She smiled. God. Her smile.

"Yep. That's right. I heard that you had a little one of your own." I cocked an eyebrow.

"Oh yeah. Jasmine. She's my whole world. She's actually over at dad's right now." She laughed. "He hasn't seen her for awhile, so I'm sure he's going to have his hands full. She is four now."

Then Jasper came over and kissed her on the lips. Are you fucking shitting me?

"You two?" I meant it to sound like I was happy, but it came out as more of a growl.

Jasper laughed. "Yeah, who'd have thought it. One minute we're sulking in each other's despair, and now we are married and have a beautiful daughter and great careers."

I shook my head in disbelief. How did I not know any of this was going on? I looked at Rose.

"Did you know about this?" I asked her.

She smiled. "Yeah. Mom and dad have pictures of Jasmine all over their bedroom and in scrap books. They even have a whole album of their wedding in Hawaii." She looked at me apologetically. I couldn't be mad at her, it wasn't her fault.

Edward came over dragging his pregnant wife behind him. He hugged Bella and Jasper. "It's good to see the both of you, again."

"It's good to see you, too. I see you've been a very busy man, Mr. Cullen." Bella giggled. Her laugh.

"Yes. Well, between work and everything, it seems that baby making is the only thing we've got to do these days." He laughed, running his hand through hair.

Alice chimed in. "Jacob and I have some great news, too. We're adopting a little girl. The paperwork is already approved, and we're just waiting for her to be born!"

Everybody congratulated them. My congratulations seemed to fall a little short on the excitement department.

"So," Edward asked, "how long are you two in for? I mean, I know that you can't stay forever."

"We are going to be here for a couple of weeks." Jasper smiled. "Maybe we can all get together this weekend and get some drinks. I'd suggest tonight, but Bella and I are tired from the flight and Jasmine will probably drive Charlie bat shit before the night is out."

"Oh yeah, brother of mine. I think that would be a great idea. Mom and dad can watch Jasmine and the boys. It'll be just like old times."

I spoke up. "Maybe we should all go to the beach."

It was the first thing I'd voluntarily said for an hour.

Bella smiled and my heart caught on fire. "That sounds perfect! We can build a fire and everything just like we used to do! You're brilliant, Em!"

I wanted someone to just shoot me in the face.


	14. The Flame

BPOV:

I thought that Emmett might faint then and there. His eyes were practically bulging out of his head. I also knew that he would probably not take the news of Jasper and I too well.

To be honest, it wasn't like I was intending on ever really being with Jasper. However, it was so much easier to focus and realize how much I really did love him and need him in my life without Emmett around.

So, here we are now, we've dropped the bomb on everybody and I can't help but feel a little pang of jealousy over Rosalie.

We all decided to go down to First Beach this weekend. This should be interesting.

~*~

"Jasmine, baby, come give us kisses, we're going to go for awhile." I yelled down the hall at the Hale's house.

She came running at me full speed, her blond curls bouncing as she ran.

"Mommy. I will miss you." She nuzzled her face in my neck. I had to smile.

"I will miss you too, 'Lil Bit." That was my nickname for her.

I passed her over to Jasper. "Now, you are going to be good for mamaw and papaw, aren't you?"

She smiled brightly. Jasper kissed her on the cheek. "Who's my best girl?"

"Me and mommy." She laughed.

We said our good-byes and we headed out the door in our rental.

Jasper broke the silence. "Are you nervous at all?"

"Hmm?" I looked at him. "What should I be nervous about?"

He laughed. "Well, I mean, it's been ten years or so since you were around Emmett. You mean to tell me that you aren't at least curious to talk to him and catch up?"

"No more than the rest of them." I lied.

I had to hand it to Jasper. He never let the whole Emmett thing get the best of us. He was always there and he never faltered. His loyalty is a huge reason for my being with him. Why I love him.

We reached the beach and parked, pulling blankets and coolers out. Edward and Jacob had apparently decided to handle all of the firewood and food.

"Bells, Jasper. You two made it, I see." Edward ran over to give us a hand with the coolers.

"Thank you Edward." I sighed in relief. I'm not sure why we needed an entire cooler full of Bud Light, but I am sure I was going to find out.

Jasper looked around. "Where's my sister and Emmett? I figured they'd be the first down here since it was his idea."

"He's probably got tied up at football practice. But, knowing him, driving from Seattle will take half the time than the normal person." Alice laughed.

I had forgotten that he played. I used to secretly go and watch his games at Buffalo Wild Wings.

Before I could say any more about it, Emmett and Rosalie pulled up in a black Lambo. Must be fucking nice to play with a ball and get paid millions.

"Hells Bells." He laughed as he got out of the car. "Looks like you've got quite alot of beer there. I know you're not going to drink that." He nudged me.

"Shit. I bet I could drink you under the table, son." I lifted my head proudly.

Jasper laughed. "Seriously, she can drink. It's like her second nature." I kissed my man on his sweet lips.

EMPOV:

I realized that the way I was acting with Bella was pretty much Grade A retarded. I tried not to think about her, but everything I did made me think about her. Football practice today made me nuts, because she was always pushing me to play ball. It was her fault, thank god, that I was here to begin with.

"You seriously think you can out drink me? You've got to be shittin' me, Bells." I scoffed. I didn't know that I necessarily cared, either. I just wanted to be numb. This shit can't be healthy.

"I shit you not, McCarty." She cocked an evil smile in my direction.

Jasper laughed again. "Don't do it, man. Don't go to the dark side." I laughed too. But, I quickly found myself wanting to punch him in his face. Not for being annoying, but for stepping in on my Bella.

~*~

We sat around drinking and making s'mores and just reminiscing about all of the good times we used to have.

"Okay, okay. Do you guys remember that one time when we played 'Spin the Bottle' in like the 8th grade? Dude, Cullen got stuck kissing Lauren Mallory and she had braces. It was like the second time he landed on her so he had to use tongue. She fuckin' cut his tongue all up. It was tragic." I laughed at my story. I felt bad for Cullen after that. "I can only imagine if it were something else." All the men shuddered.

Jasper laughed. "Okay. I've got one. Remember the time that Bella got sick with mono, and we went through the entire school kicking guys' asses because we wanted to know who she was making out with to get it? Turned out she got it from drinking after her cousin that had it." We all laughed again.

Cullen stepped up. "Remember when you guys beat the shit out of me for spreading rumors about Bella? I had to call myself a fag." I winced at that.

"Sorry, man. I know that was pretty much not cool." Jasper stated.

"No, you guys were right in doing that. I was a prick, and I didn't realize it." He gave a quick smile.

Rosalie snapped up. "Okay, enough of this emotional trip to the past. Let's talk about what everybody is doing these days. Since we haven't seen Bella and Jazz lately, how about you guys start?"

Bella was the first to say anything. "Well, I teach at OSU, Literature, of course. I love my job. It's the best thing that could have happened to me, moving out to Ohio. Anyway, we got married our sophomore year of college." She looked down. That literally made it a little more than a year after she and I broke up. "We got pregnant with Jasmine four years ago, when we thought we couldn't have any children. The few times we didn't even try, is when we conceived. She's our whole world."

I wanted to be part of that life. I was being selfish with my own thoughts when Jasper interrupted them. Thank God. The need to punch him in the throat was a slight less now.

"Okay, if we're coming to me, I teach music at OSU. I was going to originally go with American History, with my specialization on Southern Territories and the Civil War, but I was enjoying the atmosphere that the music gave me. I have to honestly say the coolest thing at the time, was getting to get front row passes to see 'THE BEST DAMN BAND IN THE LAND' do the Script Ohio. Nothing like it in a million years." He smiled. That was his favorite thing about the games. "So, as Bella said, we got married in the middle of our sophomore year. The way I proposed to her was interesting. We were watching the news and I acted all interested in what ever the hell was going on at the time. They said there was an urgent story and it showed a picture of me. She had a confused look on her face." He laughed, no doubt remembering. "Anyway, the anchorman claims he's got the report and it was me asking her to marry me. She turned around and I was on my knee with the ring."

They turned and looked at each other. I laughed. "The grand gesture." I smiled.

Jasper nodded his head. "Exactly."

Everybody went around telling how they got where they are. Edward talked about how he worked his ass off in school to get as successful as he is now. Alice owned her own vintage beauty shop, that she built from the ground up, and is highly successful. Then, it was my turn.

"So, Emmett, how goes the whole football thing?" Bella quizzed.

I sighed. "It's great. I always knew I'd play somewhere, but being close to home is so much better." I smiled and winked at Rosalie. "I almost gave up on football. I as drinking heavy every night. My grades started slipping and I just gave up on life in general." I lowered my eyes. I could feel the heat vision coming off of Rosalie in giant waves. I spoke up. "But, then this beautiful woman here snapped me out of my extreme depression, which I honestly thought about killing myself over, and pushed me to work my ass off and achieve my goals, with or without y-" I cut myself off.

Bella stood up and glared at me. "What the hell, Emmett?" She stomped off toward the water.

Rosalie urged me to go and talk to her. She knows I don't deserve her, not even a little bit.

"Wait. Bells. Just chill out." I yelled after her. I followed her all the way over past some rocks where she was throwing rocks into the water.

"You're such a jerk, Emmett. Why did you feel the need to bring that up, huh?" She scowled at me.

Being the blunt mother fucker I am, I told her the truth. "Because, we can't deny what is going on here. You hurt and I hurt all because of some fucking mistake that happened 10 years ago. Shit, Bella. I would have given anything to make you happy."

Her face didn't soften. "Is that why you ignored me altogether? You stopped calling and you stopped emailing me. You acted like I had the fucking plague, Emmett."

"I was convinced that you didn't want me anymore. I just knew that if I left you alone, you'd find your own way." My voice was near a whisper.

She huffed. "The thing that hurt the most, the singular most important thing, was that you took your friendship away when you stopped talking to me."

"You're such a hypocrite, Bella. I took MY friendship away? You fucking took yours all the way to Ohio with JASPER of all people." I was shaking now.

Then, I heard her sniffles and knew she was crying. "Do you know that I haven't ever stopped thinking about you ever since I left that day?" She laughed.

"Same here." I admitted.

I gave her a big hug. "So, what do we do now?"


	15. Shoulda' Coulda' Woulda'

EMPOV:

"We don't do anything." Bella whispered.

I felt a little heart broken. I didn't plan on leaving my family or anything like that, but I wanted her back in my life. I wanted her to be my Bella again, and I'd take her any way I could get her.

"Bella. I can't not have you in my life. Don't you understand that? I've lived with the regret of losing you for 10 years. 10 years, Bella I've waited for you to come home." I looked her in the eye, very seriously.

She teared up. "Emmett, I left you and you didn't even try to come after me. Yeah, you called and wrote me emails, but where was the fight in that? You told me you would spend every day of the rest of my life making me happy, and you lied to me. What kind of friend is that?"

She was right. I didn't make the conscious effort to make things right. I left it at a few messages and that was that.

"I screwed up, Bella. I admit that. Rose even told me to go after you." I laughed. "I told her that you wanted nothing to do with me. I gave up."

She laughed. "Well, I didn't know that giving up was in your vocabulary, Mr. McCarty."

Bella was back, at least I hoped that she was. We started walking along the beach now, talking about our pasts.

"So, what made you decide to go with Jasper?" I prodded. I was actually genuinely interested.

She sighed. "Ah. My Jasper. Well, when you didn't bother to make it work, I found myself talking to him and hanging out with him more and more. It started off as nothing, but it made me realize that he has always been there for me, just as much as you had." She smiled. "He was always lost with the whole Alice thing. So, there we were, two lost souls wondering about the sea, without our vessels. He's my vessel, Emmett."

I couldn't help but smile. I was gradually hating Jasper a little less.

She continued. "He didn't judge me. He knew that I loved you every second of my life. He didn't blame me and kept an open mind. Anyway, he held on to me. When he asked me to marry him, we weren't even dating, but I knew that he was it for me. When we got married. I wanted you to be there so badly." She looked over at me. "I mean, you were always my absolute best friend for as long as I can remember. Even if we didn't work out, I still loved you. I wanted you there for the biggest part of my life, but I ignored it. Then, we just kind of moved on with our lives. Rose would keep us up to speed on you, and eventually, we tried to have a baby. It didn't work out so well at first, but once we actually stopped trying and we just did it, we got pregnant with Jasmine. She's our whole world." She laughed. "You should see her with him, it's unreal."

"I never did picture Jasper as a dad. It's kind of cool. We'll have to get our kids together and take them to the park tomorrow." I suggested.

Her eyes lowered. "The park. Lots of memories there, eh?"

I wanted someone to rip my heart out.

"So, tell me about your awesome life. I know it's far more spectacular than mine." She nudged me.

"Well, when I gave you up, I was at the lowest point of my life. I was drinking all of the time. Hell, I even experimented in drugs, but nothing made the pain go away, so I stopped those." She gave me a horrified look. "Quit looking at me like that, Bells. Like I said before, Rose told me to come after you, and I told her no. She actually felt bad for you. I mean, she really blamed herself. The thing is, we really weren't planning that kiss. Neither of us." I looked over to her, and she was getting teary eyed. I changed the subject.

"So, I didn't date for awhile, and I straightened my life out. Edward came and saw me a few times. Same with Alice and Rose. They helped me get my ass in gear and do what I came to do, which is play football. I threw myself into school work and football. I ended up getting the Heisman my senior year. My dad had never been more proud of me. I graduated with a degree in Business, and that helps when I'm working as an athlete, nobody can screw me out of my money." She laughed. "Rose and I had been dating off and on at that point. I hadn't even gotten drafted yet and she was working at a fashion boutique. I proposed to her on the 50 yard line at the college. I posted the message on the scoreboard and she's been with me ever since. We got married at the Justice of the Peace and four years ago we had Jordan and Jayson, they're twins but you can't tell, and two years ago we had Bryson. I play for the Seahawks, which I got drafted right out of college, and we live in my parent's old house."

She beamed. "You still live in your parents' old house? That's so awesome!"

"Yeah, well it's not Ohio." I joked.

"Hey, I happen to like Ohio. It's warm and sunny when needs be and it's cold and snowy otherwise."

We finished up our chat and walked back over to the others.

JPOV:

It took all I had not to follow them and eaves drop on their conversation. However, I knew how much Bella was needing this. She missed him. Hell, she missed him everyday, and I missed him, too. I just wondered if it was the same way that I did, only as a friend.

"So, how goes life with Bella?" Cullen took a swig of his beer.

I smiled. "She's a wonderful mother, and she's a great wife and lover, and she's one kick ass professor." I beamed. Of all of the things, I think I'm most proud of her for that.

"That's awesome. What's your house like?" Alice asked. Of course she would.

I laughed. "It's a big two story colonial home just outside of Columbus. It's more or less in Circleville. Bella found it right after we got our positions at the college. It's got a huge yard and we don't have too many neighbors. It's really pretty great."

As I was starting to go on about our life in Ohio Bella and Emmett came back and joined our group. Bella placed a kiss on my lips. "Thank you, baby."

"For what?" I cocked an eyebrow.

She smiled. "For letting me have my time. I know you were probably worried that he'd hurt me or make me cry, but we just talked and got over our issues."

"Well, then you're welcome, darlin'." I winked.

Emmett laughed. "Well, I hate to cut this evening short, but we've gotta' set up for a little surprise tomorrow." He winked at Rosalie.

Rose laughed. "Oh yeah. You all need to be out our house around noonish. Bring the kids and dress comfortably."

On the drive home Bella seemed a load happier.

"What's with the perma-grin?" I laughed.

She giggled. "Nothing. I'm just happy to have gotten everything off of our chests. It's good to be back here. I missed this place."

I sighed. "Me too. Maybe once Jasmine graduates from school we can move back, hmm?"

"Maybe before that. We'll see. I love you, Jasper. More than ever." She squeezed my hand, and I kissed it.

"Bella, you're my whole reason for existing." I smiled into her hand.

"Let's get you upstairs, big boy. We have some ground to cover." She smirked.

We were so gonna' do it in her old bedroom.


	16. Surprises and More

BPOV:

I woke up this morning with a whole new perspective on things. For one, I was now on speaking terms with my first love, Emmett McCarty. We resolved a few things from our past, and now we are finally able to speak again.

For another, I have never loved Jasper Hale as much as I do now. He's been so incredibly understanding through this whole thing, and never once did he get jealous or act like a possessive child about me.

"Good morning sleepy head." I kissed my husband's nose.

He smiled. "Hey there beautiful." He responded with a kiss on my lips.

I cringed away. "No way are you kissing me with that breath, sir."

He pinned me down and tried to kiss me as I wrenched my head from side to side laughing.

"And why not, darlin'?"

I laughed. "Because you're breath is kickin' like Bruce Lee. Go brush your teeth."

He faked mocked horror. "Darlin', I can't believe you don't like my dragon breath."

Just when I thought he was giving up, he planted a big hot breathy kiss on my mouth.

"You nasty bastard, go brush your teeth." I laughed as I smacked him on the ass.

He laughed at me and went on to the bathroom.

~*~

We picked up Jasmine before we headed over to Rosalie and Emmett's house. Apparently, they'd had some big ass surprise for us, that I wasn't all too thrilled about. I hated surprises, and Jasper wasn't that fond of them, either.

EMPOV:

I waited impatiently for Bella's arrival. I wanted her to see how well off I was doing and secretly wished she'd feel a pang of jealousy that this wasn't her life. It's twisted, I know, but I still couldn't help it.

"Baby, could you grab the salad mix out of the fridge?" Rose broke me out of my daze.

I grabbed everything to make a salad and brought it over to her, kissing her on the cheek. "I love you."

She cocked an eyebrow. "What was that for?"

"Just because. I love you." I smiled.

She giggled. "Well, I love you, too. You better get outside and get those heathen children of yours."

I ran outside to where my boys were playing ball and heard a car pull up. I heard the doorbell ring and it was Bella and Jasper with their little girl, Jasmine. Jasmine was gorgeous. She looked a whole lot like Bella, but had Jasper's blond hair and curls. I couldn't help but be a little jealous about that, too. That should've been our little girl. But, the past is the past. She's my niece and Bella is now my sister-in-law. All irrational thoughts needed to be erased immediately.

"Hey, great you guys made it!" I exclaimed.

"Oh my god, Emmett. This house is fuckin' huge!" Jasper slapped me on the shoulder. "Good job, man."

I grabbed some beers from the cooler and took a swig. "Thanks, man. I got a great deal on it, too."

Bella told Jasmine to go play with the boys while she helped Rose in the kitchen. Jasper and I did kid patrol.

Watching Jasper with the kids was amazing. It was like he was so adult, but he was able to get on their level.

"He's great with them, huh?" Bella laughed from my side.

"How does he have the patience to do that? I mean, just play endlessly with them?" I quizzed.

She laughed. "Well, he teaches a lot of younger kids to play, too. Not just the college kids. He's been working with them for quite awhile now. There was this one boy, Tommy. Jasper used to play Pinball Wizard on the guitar for him." She smiled. "You know, from the The Who? Anyway, he always finds something with every child that he can relate to."

"That's pretty awesome. I can totally see him picking on the kid." I laughed. "You guys seemed to do really good by Jasmine. She's beautiful." I looked up at her. She was beautiful.

"You didn't do too bad yourself. Your boys are so handsome." She giggled. "We sound like old people right now. 'Handsome'." She did air quotes.

"Dinner's ready. Come on and eat you guys." Rose yelled through the patio doors.

We all ate and returned outside, when it was getting dark. By that time, Edward and Angela showed up with Masen, and Alice and Jacob pulled in.

"So, I'm sure you guys are wondering why we asked you all to come here." Rose beamed.

Everybody nodded.

"Well, we got a whole bunch of pictures together from school and we made a little movie for you guys. There's a copy for everybody, too. But, we're going to show it on the theater screen Emmett had installed. It's like our own drive-in theater here." She smiled at me.

Everybody settled in their seats to begin the show.

All of the pictures that showed up just reminded me of Bella. She was the biggest part of my life for a long time.

It all started out from when the Cullens and the Hales arrived in Forks. There was a picture of Bella in braces on my back giving a peace sign after our high school won their ball game. I could remember I was so pumped to start as a freshman the next year.

There was a picture of Jasper and Alice diving into my pool while they were holding hands.

There was a picture of Edward getting a pie slammed in his face by Rose and Alice. It was a high school fund raiser we did our eighth grade year to raise money for our graduating class.

It went on to highschool. There was a picture of Bella dancing with me. I still remember the song. It was our first dance of our freshman year.

There was a picture of Rosalie walking down the football field. She was the freshman attendant that year for homecoming. Alice was giving her a kiss and her trophy.

The next picture was one of all of us dressed up in 80's clothes for spirit week at school. That one got a lot of laughs from all of us.

It showed many more pictures, but then it started coming to our senior year. The year. The one where everything went wrong. Rose gave me an apologetic look.

I looked over to Bella who was smiling from ear to ear, leaning in on Jasper's shoulder with Jasmine asleep on his lap.

There was a picture of Bella in my football jersey with black stripes under her eyes pointing at my jersey number with one hand and holding up one finger with the other.

Another picture was the homecoming dance. It was Jasper and Bella. The look they shared was pure love.

One was Tanya and Edward holding hands and looking at each other smiling.

There was a picture of Rose and James at one of his ball games and they were kissing.

Then, there was one of Jasper and Bella wearing their Ohio State hoodies while I stood in the middle wearing my USC hoodie with a huge grin on my face.

The last picture was one of all of us, excluding Angela and Jacob. We had just graduated and all had huge grins plastered on our faces. I was looking down at Bella and she was looking up at me and we were holding hands. We were standing in the middle.

I was broken out of my obsessing when everyone started thanking us for the videos.

Bella came over to me with a confused look on her face. "Can I talk to you?"

We walked in the living room while everybody else stayed outside and chatted it up.

I handed her a beer and sat down on the couch across the room from her.

"What'd you want to talk about, Bells?" I took a swig.

She let out a long sigh. "What were you thinking about back there?"

I didn't know what to do. I didn't know whether I should be truthful or lie to her.

"I was thinking we had some pretty good times back then." I smiled.

She smiled too, but it didn't reach her eyes. "Do you regret any of it?"

I shook my head. "No. I had the best group of friends you can ask for. Even Cullen turned out not to be such a freak in the end."

She gave me a serious look. "That's not what I meant, and you know it."

She got me. I was trying to find a loophole in our conversation to back out, but she was too smart for it.

"Tell me what you're thinking, Emmett. I want the whole truth. Since when have you been one to hold back?" She furrowed her eyebrows.

"You want the absolute truth, Bella? Because, I don't think you're going to like what you hear." I told her, very seriously.

"Don't spare my feelings, McCarty. Spill it."

I sucked in a huge breath and started speaking. "What do you want me to tell you, Bella? That watching that video back there nearly ripped my heart out? That seeing how things used to be makes me want to die, because I had you then and I don't now? What do you want? It kills me every day. Everyday, Bella I wake up and think about you. I go to bed and I think about you. You fucking haunt my dreams and living without you has been a nightmare. Is that what you want to hear?"

She gulped. "Is that all?"

"No. It's not. I'm just getting started. I hate seeing you with Jasper. I hate knowing that you have a beautiful little girl and that she's not mine. I hate myself for giving up on you and I'm pretty sure I kind of hate you for letting me. You used to push me, Bella. You just stopped pushing."

She had tears in her eyes. "I love you."

I wasn't sure if I heard her correctly. "What's that?"

"I told you I love you. Not I loved you. I love you."

I didn't know what to say. Before I could respond she spoke up. "But, I can't be with you anymore that I can touch the stars. Jasper and Jasmine are my life. I am madly in love with Jasper. He's a good man and a great husband and father. He brings a lot of balance into my life. Balance that I never had with you. No matter what I've been through, I still love you. God dammit, Emmett. Seeing those pictures and not having you sitting right next to me, it felt like someone was stabbing me in the heart. And then I have to wake up to reality and remember that you are married to Rose and have three beautiful boys and the perfect white picket fence home life." She was crying now.

"I have chaos and disorder and I like it. I wake up to Jasper everyday and I'm so thankful for him. You have no idea how thankful to him I am. I'm not with him because of obligation. I'm with him because he's my other half. He's my exact other half. The reason I'm telling you that I love you, is because I wanted you to never forget it. I want you to always have me in your heart. I want you to know that a part of my heart still belongs to you, even though I can't really share it."

I was in tears. She loved me and I loved her. We both knew there was nothing we could do about it. We had separate lives to live and they didn't include loving each other.

"Bella. I will take you any way I can get you. If you want to be my best friend, then i want that, too. Just, don't shut me out of your life. I can honestly promise you that I will be everything you needed from me in a friend. The stuff I neglected to do for you in the first place."

She smiled and hugged me. "Thank you, Emmett."

"No, thank you Bella."

~*~

BPOV:

I don't know what made me go through that outburst with Emmett. Maybe it was the memories from the pictures. Maybe it was tension that had been built up for so long.

Either way, it was out in the open and it was more or less cleared up.

We said our good-byes before we left the airport and Emmett and Rosalie promised to bring the kids out to Ohio this summer.

Emmett promised me he'll call us and email us every chance he gets now that we're not shunning him out of our lives.

Now, we're at home, and it all feels more colorful. The color has been brought back into our lives. It's a new day, and a new life for me. I had my old friends back. Life is good.


	17. In and Out of Time Final Chapter

EMPOV:

I am 72 years old. My body is warn, my heart has been broken, and now I am alone. My wife, Rosalie passed away some three years ago.

My parents have been long gone. My children are married off and have lives of their own that don't much involve ol' dad. I see Alice every now and again, with her daughter, Jackie. She's been taking care of Alice ever since Jacob died 10 years ago. I don't know why, but he thought it would be a smart idea to jump off of a cliff. Seems he suffered a heart attack on the way down.

Today. The rest of my heart is being buried. My Bella. Jasper is still around, although at the moment, he's almost catatonic.

Here we are, at the church for her funeral. Everybody is dressed in black and they crying. Her children, yes they had two more, sat in the front row. Jasmine was still beautiful, her blond hair just had a hint of frosting on it. They had two sons, Noah and Ason. They had their wives and their children with them. One of Bella's granddaughters, Micah, looks just like Bella.

Once the pastor got up to say some things, you know, the things they usually say during funerals, Jasper took his place up at the podium and began to speak.

"Isabella Marie Swan-Hale was and is my soul mate. She was and is my whole world. Our time on this earth has been a long one. It has been full of twists and turns, ups and downs, ins and outs. We'd struggled through hard times, and loved every minute of the good ones." His voice was shaky. "She was such a good friend to all of those around her. She was a wonderful professor, a superior mother, and the best wife a man could ask for. I ask that you don't take this day to cry over my wife, but I ask that you take this day to remember her life. Celebrate it. Revel in the good times that you may have shared with her. Her death only means that she will be going on to bigger and better things." He pointed up toward the ceiling. "Now, I'd like for Alice Black to come up and say some things.

Alice slowly made her way to the podium. She pushed her glasses on her nose and pulled out a piece of paper. "Bella Swan was a friend of mine through thick and thin. She was the glue that held our group together, and when she left some odd years ago, that bond slipped apart." She looked over her glasses at me. "Lucky for us, when she was around, our whole world was better for it. When I was down, she'd encourage me to move along. That's what she did, she pushed. And Bella pushed every day of her life. When this sickness took over her, she pushed until she had nothing else to push for." Alice's chin trembled. "She and I had something in common." She laughed. "We both loved Jasper Hale. But, apparently he made the better decision of sticking with Bella." She winked at Jasper.

Alice walked down off of the podium to where Bella's lifeless body lay in the casket. Her arms were layed to her sides. She looked peaceful. Alice placed a kiss on her forehead. "I love you Bella Bear." She took her seat.

The pastor stood behind the podium again and asked me to say a few words. I did as I was asked. Jasper put his hand on my shoulder before I stood up to go.

I sucked in a huge breath, trying to steady my trembling voice. "What can I say about Bella Swan-Hale?" I breathed in again, steadying myself. "Failure was not an option for her. She and I have been best friends since before we can remember. She was OUR best friend." I looked at Jasper."We were her protectors. However, it seemed she didn't need much protecting. She was feisty, opinionated, and intelligent. She was beautiful. God was she beautiful. I can see her in each of her children. I have been blessed, truly blessed to have her in my life as long as she was. She got to live a long and useful life upon this earth. Bella, I won't say good-bye." I was crying. "Bella, I'll say, see ya' kiddo. Goodbye means forever. I can't wait that long to see you again."

As I stood to go off of the podium, I felt my heart explode. The last thing I remember, I hit the floor.

~*~

"Where am I?" I tried to open my eyes, but the light was too bright.

"We're in my room, stupid." It was her voice. I shot my eyes open.

"How. What?" I was confused.

"We're in my room, Emmett. What are you so confused about?" She laughed.

"We're dead. Bella. We're not alive anymore." I hurried.

She smiled warmly at me and put a hand on mine. "This is our heaven."

I gave her a confused look. "Your room is our heaven?"

She nodded a little. "Well, not just my room. I mean, it'll be as if we were 18 all over again. Before I left. Before we were miserable."

I really looked at her and she was younger again. She was her 18 year old self. She was wearing that Ohio State hoodie that she left for college in. I was still confused.

"What happens to everybody else? I mean. I want them here too."

She grinned. "In time. When it is their time, they will join us. They're part of our heaven, too. But, for now, it's just you and me, kid."

I sat there for a moment, trying to make sense of all of this. "Why me?"

"I'm sorry?"

"Why me, Bella? Why not Jasper to go back and be with in your heaven?"

She looked at me seriously. "It's simple. I had my whole human life with him. It was spectacular and it was fulfilling. It's like... a second chance. I love Jasper, and I always will. But, when he arrives here, he won't remember anything. He won't remember we were married, but only that we were best friends."

I smiled and kissed her on the forehead. "What about your kids?"

She smiled. "I won't have to worry about them for quite a long time. They're going to be around for awhile."

With that, we walked downstairs and to the back yard. "I found this in my stuff." She smiled and handed it to me. "It's the poem you handed me that night when you came to confess your love for me. Will you read it to me?"

I took the poem and smiled. "Absolutely."

"The sun has come.  
The mist has gone.  
We see in the distance...  
our long way home.  
I was always yours to have.  
You were always mine.  
We have loved each other in and out of time.  
When the first stone looked up at the blazing sun  
and the first tree struggled up from the forest floor  
I had always loved you more.  
You freed your braids...  
gave your hair to the breeze.  
It hummed like a hive of honey bees.  
I reached in the mass for the sweet honey comb there....  
God...how I love your hair.  
You saw me bludgeoned by circumstance.  
Lost, injured, hurt by chance.  
I screamed to the heavens....loudly screamed....  
Trying to change our nightmares to dreams...  
The sun has come.  
The mist has gone.  
We see in the distance our long way home.  
I was always yours to have.  
You were always mine.  
We have loved each other in and out  
in and out  
in and out  
of time."

"I love you, Bella Swan."

She kissed my forehead. "I love you, too Emmett McCarty."

This was it. Our heaven. Just having each other back. And the poem was never more fitting. We have loved each other in and out of time.


End file.
